Matt Bloomfield has revealed that a series of recent “contentious” decisions against Luton have since been assessed differently by officials, but insists that though they are “frustrating” the Hatters can’t let it affect their mindset.
It follow Bloomfield admitting on Saturday that he was “angry” at some of the decisions made as Town lost 4-0 at Burnley after Kal Naismith was sent off on 19 minutes. He’s awaiting an official report from the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), but says that, “unofficially”, some of the Hatters’ grievances at Turf Moor may have been justified. That would add the refereeing body ruling that Luton were recently on the wrong side of other controversial decisions.
“There’s been some dialogue. We haven’t had the official feedback,” Bloomfield said of contact with the PGMOL about the Burnley game.
“The official feedback I’ve had recently was the penalty against Watford wasn’t a penalty. That Portsmouth could have had two red cards, had none. And the feedback, unofficially, I’m getting is that, there were several contentious decisions on Saturday.
“It’s extremely [frustrating]. We’re away from home against Burnley a very, very good team who need to be respected and we were really pleased with the work we did for 20 minutes. Obviously with ten men, it’s gonna be a lot tougher, but there’s big moments in the game that have gone against us that are frustrating.”
As well as the decisions themselves on Saturday, captain Jordan Clark was booked for his protests that Burnley’s third goal was scored by Josh Brownhill after the ball had rolled off the field of play.
Bloomfield said: “I got booked last week against Portsmouth when my player gets kicked when the ball’s three meters away. We should be able to stick up for ourselves and our team, but unfortunately, when you do, you get double punishment, which again, is the rules of the game at the moment.”
As he did on Saturday, Bloomfield again chose his words carefully ahead of tomorrow’s basement battle at Cardiff, admitting: “I’m not going to say too much because I’m not going to spend any of my money on a fine that I don’t need to, because I’m not going to gain anything from it. We need to let that go.
“But you have runs like this in football where all the decisions go against you, but that doesn’t go forever and it has to turn at some point. We have to start getting some decisions in our favour because it’s the game.
“But the only way we’re going to do that is by keep believing in what we’re doing, keep working towards what we’re doing, and not letting this affect our mindset and our belief and our personality going into the game. That has to be our sole focus.
“Unfortunately, as a manager, there’s a lot out of your control, and you can’t affect it as much as you want to. Because when you put your whole life into a job, you want to affect it all and have an imprint in everything, but you can’t.
“There’s some things that are out of control. Availability of players when they’re fit, when they’re ill, when they’re not fit, refereeing decisions, there’s so much that are out of your control, so you have to focus on what you can control.
“And if you do that often enough and work hard enough and be diligent enough then the game tells you that it turns in your favour. That’s the only way it can go. We believe in that and we’ll keep working towards it.”
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