Hatters boss disappointed by referee’s quick whistle and Onyedinma’s disallowed goal in Blades draw

Town boss Nathan Jones makes his point to referee Andy Davies on Saturday

Luton boss Nathan Jones felt that referee Andy Davies should have allowed play to go on when denying attacker Fred Onyedinma a clear shooting chance during Saturday’s goalless draw against Sheffield United.

Just two minutes after the interval, visiting defender John Egan was shown a yellow card for pulling back Elijah Adebayo as the Town forward looked to get away.

The ball ran through the Blades back-line and into the area where it was picked up by Onyedinma who looked to only have keeper Wes Foderingham between the posts to beat.

Before he could get the opportunity to try and do so, the whistle had already gone for the foul on Adebayo, a decision that enraged the Town bench at the time, who naturally wanted play to carry on and the chance to develop further.

Speaking afterwards, Jones said: “You’ve only got to wait a second.

“I spoke to the referee, he’s only got to wait a second and if he does he can see the whole picture.

“He can always bring it back, he knows what’s gone on, but he didn’t, he just blew straight away and denied us the opportunity.”

Town and Onyedinma did have the ball in the net soon afterwards, when the summer signing from Wycombe raced on to Kal Naismith’s long punt forward to poke his attempt beyond Foderingham.

This time it was the referee’s assistant Mark Pottage who bore the brunt of the frustrations though, with a raised flag cutting short the Hatters’ celebrations.

Jones continued: “Fred’s clean in, he scores, I’ve seen it, it’s not categorical.

“I can’t come here and say he’s got it wrong, but it’s tight.

“It used to be the advantage to the attacker but I’m not quite sure that’s the case anymore.

“I’m just pleased that we bounced back though as our performance showed real, real character.”

After the game, Jones was involved in a heated discussion with Pottage, as when asked about the incident, Jones added: “It’s part and parcel and was just about the decisions.

“We felt he could have done something different, he didn’t have it, I spoke to him as I feel sometimes we’re very nice and we don’t get the decisions we probably should.

“I don’t want to speak bad, because the referee’s got a hard job but I feel sometimes we are just a bit nice.

“I’m all nice on the sidelines, I’ve calmed down a lot and I’m not sure it does us any good.”