Wayne Rooney's nightmare continued in the Championship as Birmingham City suffered third straight defeat under his tutelage.

Birmingham City suffered third consecutive defeatRooney took positives from the gameSlammed referee for denying Birmingham City a penaltyWHAT HAPPENED? The Rooney-managed Championship side went down 3-1 against Southampton on Saturday with Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Carlos Alcaraz and Adam Armstrong scoring for the home team. Jay Stansfield, on the other hand, scored the consolation goal for the Blues.

While the former Manchester United star praised his team's performance against the Saints and drew positives from the game, he slammed the match officials for denying his team a penalty after Oliver Burke was fouled inside the box.

WHAT THEY SAID: "They are a good team they moved the ball well and as I have said they have got a coach who wants to play football. I said that before the game, the teams in this league are teams who want to play football," he told Sky Sports. "But I thought we showed a different side of us today, staying in the game, making it difficult. Of course, the decision on the penalty was an absolute disgrace. The information we got from the fourth official was minimal contact which is crazy."

Article continues below"I think there were obviously some positives in the game. I thought we kept going, we kept pushing but ultimately the three goals we conceded are not good enough. I think losing three goals at the back post and defending the box is the basics of the game. I have watched back all of the games obviously and we can't do that, we can't give them goals. So, positives for us to take but obviously it's a disappointing defeat."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: The former DC United manager has now lost three consecutive matches since taking charge of the club earlier this month. A section of Birmingham fans have already turned against the 37-year-old as he was abused after their loss against Middlesbrough last weekend.

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