Cardiff City boss criticises key decision but delivers this scathing verdict on Sunderland defeat

Cardiff City boss Erol Bulut criticised the decision to award Sunderland a penalty in the opening exchanges of Friday's game but admitted that he could have no complaints about the final result.

Sunderland were awarded a penalty when Jobe Bellingham drove into the box and was pushed by a Cardiff defender. Bellingham then went to ground as a second defender tried to close him down, and Bulut felt it was a soft decision. Adil Aouchiche converted the penalty, after which the Black Cats were dominant and doubled their advantage through Bellingham's close-range finish later in the half.

"I don't think it was a penalty,' Bulut said.

"I think it is too easy to whistle. We watched it back on the Ipad and of course the referee can't do this because there's no VAR. The referee said there was a push but it is just a touch, and because the other defender then tries to block him, he then jumps over him. I think it was too easy for a penalty to be given."

Cardiff had started the game relatively well but Bulut admitted that they were nowhere near good enough after the opening goal, going as far as to say he felt it was one of their worst performances of the season so far.

“Until minute 12, when we conceded a penalty, everything was fine," he said.

"After that, we lost totally our confidence, our playing shape. We couldn’t create. This is disappointing. We couldn’t wake up. We lost a lot of duels, a lot of individual mistakes were made. When you make this many mistakes, you cannot expect to win the game.

“During the international break, the players trained really well so I was expecting a much better game. To see that performance today, it hurts. Today I have to be honest, from the 39 games we’ve played this season, this was one of the worst. I have to be clear about that. I didn’t like it at all.”

Bulut is out of contract at the end of the current campaign and added that the uncertainty might be having an impact on performances.