Boss Rob Edwards said the decision to award Sunderland a controversial late penalty cost his Luton side as he accused Manchester United loan winger Amad Diallo of diving to win the spot-kick.
In a season of infuriating decisions, debutant Championship referee Scott Oldham and his assistant combined for one of the worst yet, coming to the conclusion that Amari’i Bell had hauled down the wide man.
Replays showed that to be not even close to the truth, but even in real-time, the Stadium of Light crowd barely made a murmur.
Having convinced the officials, the Black Cats substitute converted from 12 yards to cancel out Alfie Doughty’s opener – not without its own slice of keeper error-derived fortune – to deny the Hatters a first win in Sunderland for 50 years.
What’s more, is that they were on course for a fourth successive 1-0 win, which would’ve been the first time in 42 years that Town had racked up as many second-tier wins on the spin.
Edwards said: “(It was) not to be today. I felt like the players deserved it. I thought the performance overall was very good. It’s very a difficult place to come and we were in great shape. Ultimately a wrong decision has cost us.”
Mr Oldham appeared unmoved by Diallo’s theatrics at first but after conferring with the linesman, a penalty was the outcome.
Edwards said: “Between them (the officials), they came to the decision. I know it happens quickly and they’ve had a discussion and felt that was what the right decision was.
“We have the benefit of looking back at it. We had a really strong feeling at the time, but with the benefit of looking back at it, it’s not a penalty. I feel the lad’s (Diallo) bought it, bought a penalty and dived the opposite way.”
The man who was adjudged to have felled the Sunderland player, Bell, took to Twitter afterwards to call the decision a “shambles”.
While Town striker Elijah Adebayo, who jointed Luton’s 100 Club with his appearance, afterwards slammed “some questionable decisions” with a post on Twitter.
While the club’s physio, Simon Parsell, tweeted: ‘Robbed by possibly the worst ref debut by Steve Oldham. Why give him games he’s not ready for’?
Until that point, everything appeared to be going to plan as, just after half time, Doughty saw a show saved by Anthony Patterson who then let a second shot from the wing-back squirm through his fingers to give Town the lead.
And having kept three clean sheets in their last trio of outings, the travelling Town contingent would’ve been expecting another famous 1-0 triumph.
But the officials’ intervention means that the only goals they’ve conceded in 12 league games have been penalties, one that was offside and a goalkeeping error.
Speaking of Sunderland’s 86th-minute leveller, Edwards said: “What that did is it changed the momentum and the whole dynamics of the game because it lifted them completely, with thirty-odd thousand people backing them and we could’ve gone from three points to nothing quite quickly.”
Instead, Luton had to settle for a seven-point week, which keeps them fourth in the Championship with a seven-point buffer between them and the chasing pack outside the play-offs.
But it extended the gap between them and a potential automatic promotion spot to six points, with a game in hand for second-placed Sheffield United.
“I’m sure we’ll look back on it and say, ‘that was a really good point’, but it’s tough to take right now,” said Edwards.
Talking to the BBC, he added: “A lot of our games have been tight, so I’m fairly reasonable and rational about it, but when you look at the position we were, we’re greedy and we want three points every single game.
“We put ourselves in a great shape to do it and in my opinion deserved it. They had their moments, but so did we and we had periods of real control.
“I thought it was a very good performance, considering where we’re at and the turnaround time from Wednesday.”
Now Town will have a two-week international break before plotting derby revenge at home to arch-rivals Watford on April 15.
“We’ve had some momentum. We’ve got to make sure that when we restart, we continue that,” said Edwards, who began the season as the Hornets boss.
“It’s really important that we remain focused realise what’s getting us success at the moment and keep doing it, being consistent and relentless in everything we do.”
This ppage really has aall tthe information I wanted
concerning this suibject and didn’t knoow whoo to ask.
Greetings Iam so grateful I foynd your webpage, I really fouind yyou by mistake,
while I was searchig onn Yahoo for something else, Anyways I am here noow annd wpuld
just like tto saay thank you for a remarkable post and a all
roun enjoyanle blog (I also love thee theme/design), I don’t have time to look
over it aall at thee minute but I have saved it aand also included yopur RSS feeds,
so whdn I have time I will be bsck tto read a lot more, Please do keedp upp
the excellent job.
Yourr way of tellping eveything iin this piece off writing iis actually nice, every one cann simply bbe aware
off it, Thamks a lot.
Every weekend i used to paay a visit this site, aas i want enjoyment, for thhe
reaqson that this this weeb pagee conations truly pleasant fujny
stuff too.
Hello I aam sso excijted I found your blog page, I really found you bby mistake, whhile I was searching on Yahoo for something else, Regardless I aam here now and would ust ike to sayy kudoss ffor a tremendous
ppost aand a all round interesting blkg (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time tto reaad it
alll at the minute but I havee saved it annd also added your RSS feeds,
so when I have time I will be back to rsad a lot more,
Plerase ddo keep up thhe fantastic work.
You’ve made ssome good poiknts there. Icheckrd on tthe internst to
learn more abut the issue annd found modt peoople wipl go along witth our views onn this website.
Definitelly believe thwt which yyou stated. Your favoeite reasoon seemed to bee oon the net thhe simplest thing to be aware of.
I say too you, I certainly get irked whiloe people think about worriees thnat they just do noot know about.
Yoou managed to hit thee nail upon tthe top annd also defined out the wholee thing withut having sid effecht ,
peopke can take a signal. Will likely be ack too gget more.
Thanks
Hello, i believe thhat i noticed yoou viskted my site soo i came too return thee prefer?.I’m
attempting to fund things to improve my site!I assume itts good enouhh to usee some of your concepts!!
Heey there, You’ve done a great job. I will definjitely digg itt annd personazlly recojmend tto
myy friends. I amm sure they’ll be benefited from thi site.
Whenn ssome one searches for his required thing, thus
he/she eeds to be available tyat in detail, soo
thhat thing iis maintained over here.
Everytthing iss very open wwith a cloear description off the issues.
It wass truly informative. Yourr website is extremely helpful.
Many thanks for sharing!
I was more than happpy to find ths great site. I waznt too tto tank you
foor ones time duee to this woinderful read!! I definitely appreciated everry part of it and I have yyou
book-marked to see neew things iin your blog.
It’s hard to find edsucated people about this topic,
however, yyou sseem like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks
If youu desire too grow yur knoaledge simply keep
visiting this website and be updated with tthe mosst
recenbt gossip posted here.
Greetings! Thiis iis mmy frst viit too your blog! We are a group of volunteers aand
stwrting a neww intiative iin a commuity inn the same niche.
Your blog provided us valuable information too
work on. You have done a marvellos job!
Заказ манипулятора. Срочно – стоимость аренды, манипулятор вездеход. Бестрей всего взять в аренду манипулятор можно только у нас!
[url=https://zakazat-manipulyator.ru]заказ манипулятора[/url]
перевозка манипулятором – [url=http://zakazat-manipulyator.ru]https://www.zakazat-manipulyator.ru[/url]
[url=http://google.com.tw/url?q=http://zakazat-manipulyator.ru]https://www.google.pt/url?q=https://zakazat-manipulyator.ru[/url]
[url=https://top20brand.com/top-10-biggest-airports-in-india/#comment-28096]Манипулятор в аренду – наша компания предлагает аренду кранов манипуляторов, которые обладают грузоподъемностью для перевозки грузов различных видов, размеров и параметров.[/url] 4882036
What’s Takiing place i’m neew too this, I stumbled pon this I’ve discovered It positively uuseful and iit has helped
mee out loads. I aam hoping to giuve a contribution &
assist other users like its aided me. Goodd job.
I’m really lovging the theme/design off your blog.
Do you ecer run into any internet browseer compatibiity issues?
A feew of myy blog visitors have complaine aboyt my sige not operatting correctly inn Explorer but
looks great iin Firefox. Do you haave any solutions to help
fiix this issue?
Touche. Ouystanding arguments. Keep up thee amazzing effort.
After I initially let a comment I alpear too havee clickedd on tthe -Notify mme when neww comments are added- checkbox aand from
noww oon eahh tine a comment iis added I rcieve 4 emails woth tthe exacdt
same comment. Perhaps there is aan easy method you caan remove mee from thaat
service? Thajk you!
An inability to score more than 1 has cost us. A conservatism in attack was always going to bite us again at some point. Mistakes will happen at the back (either by us or the officials). But a 2 goal cushion means 1 mistake doesn’t hurt us.
Do you not think the team know that?
They always try.
I’m noot sure exaactly why buut this weblog iis loading incredibly slopw for me.
Is anyoe else hhaving this issue or is it a issuee oon my end?
I’ll check bafk later aand see if the problem still exists.