A fake viral internet post about Sunderland's defeat in the Championship playoff semi-final against Luton has been condemned by supporters online.
The Black Cats were on the receiving end of a 2-0 defeat to Luton at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday (May 16) evening - meaning a 3-2 agregate loss over two legs.
Goals from Luton's Gabriel Osho and Tom Lockyer went unanswered by Sunderland, who carried over over a 2-1 advantage from ther Stadium of Light.
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The result means that Sunderland will now have to spend another year in the Championship ahead of another push for promotion to the Premier League next season.
The entertaining football on the pitch over the course of the season has been a talking point for many Sunderland fans - but it was an online post doing the rounds on social media that many were speaking about following the club's defeat last night.
Just after the final whistle, a fake post pretending to be online hotel service Booking.com started to circulate - and it wasn't long before it became a viral post.
In the false post, a message from 'Booking.com' read: "We would like to apologise to all customers currentlysuffering technical difficulty with our website.
"We have had an unexpectadly large number of cancellations on London hotel bookings from customers based in the Sunderland area, which has crashed our servers."
Since being initially shared, the post has garnered thousands of comments and reactions, with the social media message dividing fans.
While some supporters of both Newcastle United and Middlesbrough seemed to find the funny side of the post - Sunderland fans and other North East football fans took a negative stance on the post.
Commenting on the post, one fan urged supporters to "back North East teams," while another called the post "childish".
It's worth noting that not everyone thought the post was negative, though, with some calling it "brilliant fun between football fans," and others branded it "a brilliant creation".
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