Bloomfield felt Luton should have had four penalties against Argyle
Town awarded two spotkicks in 3-2 defeat
Hatters boss Matt Bloomfield felt his side really ought to have had four penalties during yesterday's 3-2 League One defeat at home to Plymouth Argyle.
The Town chief did see his side awarded two, the first coming just five minutes after Matthew Sorinola had given the visitors a 1-0 lead, as defender Brendan Wiredu went in with his arm on Lasse Nordas in the box when the pair challenged for an aerial ball with 20 minutes on the clock, flattening the Norwegian, as referee Ollie Yates pointed to the spot, Jerry Yates making no mistake to net his first league goal for the club.
After the Pilgrims moved 2-1 ahead in first half stoppage time, Luton were given another opportunity from 12 yards just moments into the second period, as Gideon Kodua was prevented from reaching Mill Alli’s cross at the back post by Sorinola, with half time sub Nahi Wells doing the job from the spot, the strike also opening his league account in the process.
It looked like Town were going to have a third opportunity moments later when Alli went over in the box from another Sorinola challenge as there was a sharp shrill blast of the whistle from Yates. However, he bafflingly opted to book the hosts’ wingback for simulation, which replays showed it clearly wasn’t, much to the anger of the home crowd.
Luton then had another decent shout when Zack Nelson went over the leg of ex-Hatter Brendan Galloway in the area as well, but once more Yates waved the appeals away, as the Hatters made to pay when Bradley Ibrahim deflected Jordan Clark’s clearance into the net for the winner on 75 minutes. Discussing the calls, Bloomfield said: “I think it’s probably naive of me to sit here and complain about not getting penalties when we got two, but I think the two clearer ones are the ones we didn't get.
"In my opinion it’s (Alli incident) a penalty so to do him for simulation, it’s probably the situation, because two have already been given there’s probably a lot of human emotion that’s played into that decision by the referee. Zack’s one, he got across the defender, the defender actually stalled so Zack gets in front of him and he comes and barges him over and nothing given.”
Asked why the penalty takers swapped responsibilities for the second spotkick, Wells claiming the ball with Yates still on the pitch, Bloomfield continued: “It was really good for Jerry to get another goal at home after his one against Barnet. But he (Wells) took it as Jerry’s already taken one in the game, so do you go with the same guy again, as the goalkeeper might read it? We want our forwards to all score goals and Nahki and Jerry have both scored penalties at recent clubs, so if one of them fancies it at the moment then they have the autonomy to take it.”
It was a busy afternoon for the officials as not only did the man in the middle send off visiting boss Tom Cleverly, he also gave Greens captain Joe Edwards his marching orders too for a lunging challenge on Alli with 50 minutes on the clock. Bloomfield felt it was a tackle that was always going to see the visitors down to 10 men, adding: “From where I was stood on the sidelines that was my instinct. Again I haven't actually watched that one back, but my instinct at the time was that it was out of control so I wasn't surprised when I saw the red card.”