Jones hopes refereeing errors are being noted after two more go against Luton

Hatters boss Nathan Jones is hopeful the amount of refereeing decisions that have cost his side in recent weeks are being picked up by the footballing authorities.
Hatters boss Nathan Jones can't believe his side had a goal disallowed at Barnsley recentlyHatters boss Nathan Jones can't believe his side had a goal disallowed at Barnsley recently
Hatters boss Nathan Jones can't believe his side had a goal disallowed at Barnsley recently

Town fell foul of another two highly contentious calls at Gillingham on Saturday, as leading 1-0 through Andrew Shinnie's fine strike midway through the first half, James Collins then had another goal chalked off after heading into the roof of the net, the striker adjudged to have pushed defender Barry Fuller.

To make matters worse, referee Kevin Johnson then didn’t award what was a clear-cut penalty when home defender Gabrial Zakuani clearly hauled down Sonny Bradley in the area from a corner.

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Although Hatters' weren't left ruing either decision from the official, as they went on to triumph 3-1, Jones was eager to highlight the incidents, saying: "You have to, because we’ve had feedback from the Barnsley game, where we should have had a penalty and we had a goal wrongfully disallowed.

“Again we’ve had a goal wrongfully disallowed and we should have had a penalty (against Gillingham) and then in the game at home the other day, the Wycombe game, we had a goal wrongfully disallowed.

“It’s not just happening once, this is happening on a regular basis, so it’s very disappointing.

“At the minute it’s meaning that the scoring isn’t as flattering as it should be, but that could easily be the difference between winning, drawing and losing a game, and I don’t want it to get to that.

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“So I hope people are talking notice of that, because it’s very frustrating.

“It effectively cost us points at Barnsley, and categorically we should have got something from the game and that’s the only game we’ve lost in a long, long time.”

Striker Collins has been the unlucky recipient of all three disallowed goals, as he saw efforts against both Wycombe and Barnsley ruled out for offside.

That could have seen him up to double figures by now, as Jones continued: “It’s very frustrating and for James even more so, as he’s the one who’s done three very good things and effectively been punished for those three.

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“It can’t keep happening as if this was the Premier League, I’m sure there would be a lot more media, a lot more highlighting it.

“I understand that certain people have difficult jobs on the day, but these are not difficult things to make a correct decision on.”

Jones admitted the club have sent footage from Gillingham to the relevant authorities for a second opinion, after doing the same for the matches against Barnsley and Wycombe.

He added: “We do and that’s why we don’t just say, ‘we should have had a penalty’ and stuff like that.

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“We believe we should have, we re-look at it, and again think it, and then it rubber stamps and reiterates it even more.

“When we get the feedback from the referee’s society then they obviously rubber stamp it again.

“So it’s very frustrating, we’ve had a lot of feedback at the minute where we’ve been harshly done by, I hope that it evens it out.”