The latest Sunderland news, via Robbie Fenwick.

Sunderland beat Leeds United 1-0 at Elland Road on Tuesday - and the hosts should have had a penalty when Luke O’Nien grappled with Pascal Struijk.

That’s according to former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher and striker Jay Bothroyd. O’Nien and Struijk came together from a Leeds corner in the first half and Daniel Farke was left furious that referee Stuart Attwell did not award a penalty to the home side. Gallagher and Bothroyd analysed the decision on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch.

Gallagher said: “I agree with Farke - if the referee looks at it again, he gives a penalty. You can’t grab a player like that. You’ve got to go for the ball, you’ve got to look at the ball. He just hangs on to him for too long and his sole intention is to stop Struijk.

“It’s a tough decision. There’s three lots of grappling - it’s not only O’Nien. They’re all at it, so you’ve got to prioritise. There’s so much to look at.

“If you give them, then it stops. If you’re punished week in, week out and giving penalties away, you’re going to stop doing it. That’s the only deterrent. To not give it is no deterrent whatsoever.”

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Bothroyd added: “Is it unrealistic to say that at the beginning of a corner, when they’re putting the ball down, players can’t start in the six-yard box? Then it would stop the grappling.”

Ampadu’s handball was the correct decision

Habib Diarra scored the only goal of the game when Attwell was sent to the monitor to award Sunderland a penalty in the second half after Ethan Ampadu had handled in the area.

Both Bothroyd and Gallagher agreed with the decision and the latter praised the intervention by VAR. “I think it’s a really good spot by VAR Paul Tierney because without doubt it comes off Ampadu’s thigh and it can’t be handball, but then he definitely handles the ball away,” Gallagher said.

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Bothroyd added: “When he moves his arm towards the ball, it is where you say it’s definitely a penalty. But that’s an unfortunate situation because he hasn’t done that on purpose; he’s reacted, his arms gone towards the ball, it’s an unfortunate situation, but it’s definitely a penalty.”

O’Nien was in the thick of it again when he was booked for kicking an extra ball towards the one in play in an attempt to stop a Leeds United attack.

Gallagher said: “I think he was well aware of which ball was in play. It was ‘if I boot this over, it might stop the attack and break it up’. There’s no offence of having two balls on the pitch unless it impacts the game, which it did.”

Bothroyd added: “I think he’s kicked it out of play because it’s a promising attack. The only other thing I can think of is if he turns around and controls the ball and plays it back the other way, but he’s not going to do that. “But he’s thinking ‘I need to get this ball out of the way because it’s a promising attack.’ I think he’s done the right thing.”

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