LUTON TOWN boss Rob Edwards slammed the penalty decision that enabled Sunderland to dent his side’s automatic-promotion hopes at the Stadium of Light.
Luton looked to be closing to within four points of the top two when Alfie Doughty’s long-range strike evaded Black Cats goalkeeper Anthony Patterson and found the back of the net.
🔴⚪️ Some post-match thoughts from the Stadium of Light after a contentious refereeing decision finally goes #SAFC’s way in their 1-1 draw with Luton… pic.twitter.com/UwUxGJlrXX
— Scott Wilson (@Scottwilsonecho) March 18, 2023
However, after consulting with his assistant, referee Scott Oldham decided that Amari Bell had tugged down Amad Diallo in the box with five minutes remaining, despite contact between the two players appearing to have been minimal.
Amad stepped up to score from the spot, leaving Edwards extremely annoyed at the officials’ verdict.
“It’s very frustrating,” said the Luton boss. “Sunderland are a very good team, and I’m not saying they didn’t deserve anything from the game, but we were 1-0 up and the equaliser was from a wrong decision.
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“It was. I’ve been in and spoken to the officials and they’ve explained their decision-making and the reasons behind it. They don’t have the benefit of replays or VAR to get those decisions right, but these are big games and that was a huge moment.
“It changed the dynamics of the game completely because it got 30,000 fans on their feet and going nuts for their team, and changed the belief within the players as well.
“They out about 20 forwards on who are all good players, and it seemed like the Red Arrows coming at us then. We had to dig in. We went from getting three points if the decision had been right to a position where it could easily have been none because we were hanging on.”
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