Cherries boss Parker praises 'superb' officials for the manner in which they handled 'intense' Luton clash

Bournemouth manager Scott Parker praised the 'superb' manner in which the officials handled proceedings surrounding Cameron Jerome’s controversial disallowed against his side on Saturday.

With 36 minutes on the clock, the Cherries looked to have fallen 2-0 behind at Kenilworth Road, Jerome sweeping home from close range to add to Lloyd Kelly’s second successive own goal against the Hatters.

Although the strike was initially given by referee Leigh Doughty, following vehement protests from the visiting players and backroom staff, it was ruled out, the officials deciding that Jerome was a fraction offside, with the last touch coming off team-mate Elijah Adebayo and not a Bournemouth defender.

With no VAR at this level, it looked from the sidelines that the officials had come to their decision based on the appeals, with Doughty and his assistants loudly jeered for the remainder of the contest.

Luton boss Nathan Jones claimed he was glad the goal was chalked off so his side won fairly, as asked for his thoughts on the incident, Parker said: “Everything I’m being told was it was offside.

"I thought the referee and the officials today were superb, I honestly do.

"I thought the way they managed the game, a very difficult stadium, intense and both teams desperate to win, and I thought the whole process and the procedures that took place after that goal defused the situation which was obviously heated.

"They got to the right decision, full credit to them, these guys haven’t got VAR, they’ve not got an opportunity for someone else to look at it and make decisions.

"They need to have cool heads in those moments and I thought the way they executed that and seemed to get to the right decision from what everyone was telling me was brilliant.”

On the game itself, Parker felt the visitors were hard done by to lose in the manner that they did, having clawed back a two-goal deficit in the second half, only to see Kal Naismith send Kenilworth Road into scenes of unbridled joy with his stoppage time winner.

He added: "We gave ourselves a mountain to climb in the first half going two goals down, one an own goal, another one from 30 yards, the boy's hit a great strike,

“For bits in the first half I liked us but then I thought we got to the final third and really just pitted out, didn't really cause them any problems through the first phase.

“We got up to that part of the pitch very well but didn't have enough about us in those moments.

"Then second half, we showed unbelieve character, quality, subs coming on made a difference and get ourselves to 2-2.

"After 2-2, I thought we were right in the ascendancy, I thought we had the momentum with us, but it didn't pan out like that really.

“At that point the game became quite neutral and then they scored with literally the last kick of the game which is obviously devastating.

“I’m not sure we did enough to win the game, but certainly I didn’t think we deserved to lose it.

“We didn't work out at the moment what we needed to do to keep asserting ourselves really, we just lost that bit for us and it ended up being a bad one."