What Sunderland fans are saying about Luke O'Nien's red card, referee Keith Stroud and Swansea City defeat

The Black Cats were reduced to 10 men in the first half when Luke O’Nien was shown a straight red card for a tackle on Ollie Cooper, yet the game remained goalless at half-time.

Swansea took the lead when Joel Piroe opened the scoring five minutes before the interval, yet Dan Neil was able to level the score for Tony Mowbray’s side.

Sunderland weren’t able to hang on though, with Liam Cullen and Cooper both getting on the scoresheet.

Here’s how some Sunderland fans reacted:

@Capt_Fishpaste: Still think the referee got the red card right, but also don’t think he ever gave Sunderland a fighting chance to get something out of that game. If a decision could have gone against Sunderland, it did. Dreadful

@shanehagan24: Unlucky lads. As bad a referee as I’ve ever seen and we were in the league below. Battling performance with 10 men for near on 80 minutes. On to the next one

@DSHalliday: Can blame the ref all we like, Luke O’Nien lost us that game. Absolutely bossing it until the red

@Evs_Dubai: Ref’s had a shocker, but red or yellow, O’Nien - who’s been excellent all season - just didn’t need to make the tackle. The game’s over there and then, despite a really spirited performance. Drops us out of the play-offs. Massive game against Boro next week (not a derby).

@PlannerMarj: Was O’Nien’s foul a red? Debatable, but he gave the ref - who was utterly abysmal - a decision. Shame, as 11 vs 11 we were much the better side. Happy to just write today off as a non-event.

@CjgMng: O’Nien’s red card cost us that game, deserved red too regardless how poor the referee was. Batth’s position to loose again, O’Nien has no doubt got centre back qualities but he walks a tight walk every game with rash decision making and that was one of them that merited a red.

@IyazMan: Can’t remember ever tweeting about an @EFL referee, but Keith Stroud was very very poor today.