Craig Liddle lambasted a startling refereeing decision after Darlington were denied a late penalty just seconds before Luton Town netted an injury time leveller in last night's 1-1 draw.

Referee Richard Wrigglesworth played on despite John McReady going to ground after clearly being tripped by Ed Asafu-Adjaye.

The incident occurred when Darlington were 1-0 up via a Ryan Bowman penalty after putting in one of their best performances of the season.

Liddle said: "I'd rather speak about the performance because I thought the boys were fantastic against a team that has spent a lot of money, but all the talk will be about the penalty decision.

"He was the only person inside the ground that didn't think it was a penalty.

"Gary Brabin and Alan Neilson [Luton's manager and assistant] both thought it was a penalty, the fourth official did too.

"John has got stud marks on his ribs, so how the ref thinks he's got them if he's not been fouled I don't know."

Bowman spurned a chance to win it for Quakers in the fifth minute of added on time when he took another penalty, saved by Mark Tyler, after he had fallen under Godfrey Poku's weak challenge.

Liddle added: "For him to then give the next penalty sums everything up because that shouldn't have been given.

"He was just trying to get himself out of jail, but if he'd made the correct decision first time it would've been 2-0 and not 1-1."

Darlington's winless run now stands at 11 games, but the performance was a huge improvement on the 1-0 home defeat last time out against Stockport.

Liddle added: "My team talk was five seconds long. I said I wanted pride, work-rate and belief and they had all three of those things."