Mel Reay criticises two key refereeing calls and sends message to Sunderland fans in verdict on derby defeat

Sunderland boss Mel Reay said her side need to be more clinical after their defeat to Newcastle United but believes the referee made two crucial errors in the game.

Beth Lumsden’s brace secured the three points for the visitors despite Emily Scarr’s late goal. Reay believes Sunderland were denied a clear penalty when Mary McAteer went down under a challenge in the box just before Newcastle scored their second goal. That strike was direct from a corner, which Reay believes could have been ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Demi Lambourne.

It has been a disappointing start to the season for Sunderland but Reay says there wasn’t much in the game and urged her team to stick together.

"The result is the most important thing today, it's a derby,” Reay said. And we didn't do enough to get over the line. It was a real battle out there, a good shift from both teams. We're a bit frustrated with some of the decisions, we think we've had a stonewall penalty turned down which would have given us the chance to go level. They're big moments in games like this.

"The second goal is early in the second half which knocks us, I think there's potentially a foul in there on Demi. I've just seen it back quickly and it looks like there's two hands in her back from the footage that I've seen. They are big moments. We know we've got to defend it better and the corner itself is totally preventable, we had a throw in near the dugout which we've given away and been done on transition. So we know we need to learn from that as well.

"There weren't many clear chances in the game, and we needed to be more clinical with the opportunities we had. It was close today, I didn't think there was loads of good football played. The ball was in the air quite a lot, the midfield couldn't really get their foot on it and dictate. We've just got to stick together, in the tough times as well as the good.”

The Stadium of Light crowd in attendance was by far the biggest the club has seen in recent years, tenfold the one the watched the last time these two sides met in 2019. Reay was disappointed not to secure a win for the home crowd but thanked those that turned out.

"Hopefully it was a good game for the fans who turned up, it was an unbelievable atmosphere for our first game here,” Reay said.

“I want to give a big shout out to everyone who turned out to support us, hopefully they come back. It felt good to see so many here, they roared the team on in our good moments in the game and it gave the players a lot of energy.

"I hope they've had a good day out even if we haven't won. Hopefully they stick with the team, they're a good, hard-working bunch who will always put a shift in. Hopefully they keep coming out, we know their might not be as many next time [with it not being a derby] but if we're going to play here regularly, we want it to be in front of a big crowd."