Sunderland exited the League Cup on penalties against Oxford United at The Kassam Stadium. Manager Phil Parkinson wasn’t happy with the officials. “The officials have got to take a long, hard look at themselves tonight. There’s one if the first half when the goalkeeper absolutely poleaxes Lynchy (Joel Lynch). And then the second one, Luke is about to pull the trigger and put the ball in the back of the net. There’s not a lot of contact, but there’s enough to bring him down and the referee is ten yards away. I am absolutely gobsmacked that we didn’t get a penalty. I’ve had the benefit of seeing it back again obviously, but for me there’s no reason at all he shouldn’t give that. He’s in a great position, everyone in the ground can see it’s a penalty, apart from one person. Even in the first half, we’ve had some great chances,” said Parkinson. “Power had a great chance, Marc McNulty has hit the post. We’ve got in some fantastic positions. We've lost our way a little bit for ten minutes after the goal, but in the second half, we had more than enough chances to win the game and we should be out of sight. Yeah, I'm moaning at the officials and rightly so, but the game should have been done and dusted. We've got to show more conviction around the opposition goal.”
On Griggs penalty miss, he added: “The worst scenario is that you (don’t) make the keeper work,” said Parkinson. “He's not the first one to miss a penalty but we are frustrated that he didn't make the keeper work at the very least. The supporters are right behind him, have given him terrific support and he's got to believe and play with a bit more conviction. We know he's a terrific player, he's got all the attributes we need and he will start showing it. The way we played tonight, I can't really fault in terms of the attitude and desire to get back into it. The way we started the game, we started quick, but we need to make the most of the situations we get ourselves into. It's as simple as that. Shrewsbury on Saturday, we've completely dominated, and tonight against the in-form team in the league, we've played some great football and created some terrific chances. But we've got to have that belief and conviction in our finishing.”
