Graeme Jones said two crucial goal decisions went against his Hatters side as they slumped to a late 2-1 defeat against Leeds.
Izzy Brown was fouled in the build-up before Patrick Bamford’s opener, with the Whites countering and Patrick Bamford rattling in the opener on 51 minutes. The Town players were furious with referee John Brooke’s and the Kenilworth Road crowd round on the official.
James Collins equalised three minutes later and Matty Pearson hit the back of the net soon after, only for it to be chalked off by the linesman’s club.
The defender then couldn’t prevent the winner in the 90th minute, but Jones lamented not getting the decisions his team’s performances deserved.
“I felt the bitty decisions went against us today, never mind the big ones,” said the Hatters chief.
“John Brookes is an outstanding referee but I feel a little bit disappointed with how things went. It’s nothing to do with the refereee, you have to make your own luck. I’m certainly not blaming anybody here, but them things, against a big team like Leeds, can make the difference.”
Asked about the first goal, Jones said: “I don’t think I’m a biased manager. I try to be fair. I try to be subjective with things. In my opinion, and I’ve looked at the clips back and it’s a foul on Izzy. They’ve taken his legs away from him.”
The flag went up so late to cancel out Pearson’s strike, that the defender was already knee sliding his way to the Main Stand.
Jones said: “In my opinion, Matty Pearson is onside. I’ve seen them all. We’re playing Leeds United, the gulf is already big enough and when you don’t get decisions like that going your way and your team has given absolutely everything they’ve got, it’s a difficult one to swallow.
“There’s no VAR to confirm it. It’s purely subjective. There’s a guy standing, in the six-yard box, just inside and Matty’s on the line. I can’t draw a line across it but, for me, he’s onside.
“We think that’s why it has been disallowed. Maybe John (Brookes) saw a foul in there that we’re not talking about. If we’re talking about being onside, my subjective opinion is that he was onside.”
Jones also highlighted a penalty claim in the first half when Collins hit the deck, saying the striker got kicked.
But once Leeds were given a reprieve over Pearson’s disallowed goal, they piled the pressure on Luton for the final 25 minutes and netted in the last minute of normal time, with Bamford and Pearson sliding and the ball squirming in at the back post.
“I feel like we gave them a soft second goal, late on, fatigue,” Jones said, adding: “I don’t think there was anything, really, that Leeds created. Bamford’s movement is good but we should deal with it really, at the front post.
“That’s the only disappointment, really, today. Overall, we’ve competed with, I repeat myself, the best team in the league.”
Despite being under the cosh for the large part of the second half, Dan Potts was presented with a golden opportunity to rescue a point with the final touch of the game, deep into four minutes of of time added on. But the defender misjudged a free header at the back post.
Jones said: “We deserved that. Where’s the football gods when you need them. Dan’s the cleanest headerer of the ball at the club and you think, ‘this is the least we deserve here’. But, nobody’s going to help them, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to help ourselves. We’ll get better results if we can repeat what we did today.”
