Hatters boss slams decision to award Stevenage's controversial late winner

Luton boss Jack Wilshere slammed the decision that denied Town a place in the League One play-offs yesterday, as Stevenage’s hugely controversial late winner against Wigan Athletic was allowed to stand.

Going into the game, the Hatters needed to beat opponents Bolton Wanderers to finish above the dotted line and hope that one of Bradford City, Stockport County or Stevenage then lost in their games. With Bradford and Stockport both leading and out of the equation, Town went into stoppage time at the Toughsheet Stadium locked at 2-2, while with Boro goalless against the Latics, it meant that in fact Plymouth Argyle, who had begun the day in eighth, were now in the top six instead.

Shayden Morris then scored to put Luton 3-2 ahead, but unfortunately that came just moments after news that Stevenage had also found the net came through, instantly subduing the celebrations amongst the players and around 3,000 travelling supporters who themselves had cottoned on to the fact that it wasn’t going to be enough. To make matters worse, after the full time whistle, footage soon filtered through from the Lamex Stadium on social media that showed the ‘goal’ that consigned Town to another year in the third tier of English football.

A melee in the area saw the ball prodded goalwards by Dan Sweeney, with Latics keeper Sam Tickle sticking a foot out to save, as the ball was then knocked away from danger by the visitors’ defence. Although there were no obvious signs the ball had definitely crossed the line, and sadly no goal-line technology at this level, referee Matthew Russell awarded the goal after a glance over at his assistant, who was clearly guessing that points, as in no way could he have told for sure that it had gone in.

Having viewed the ‘goal’ back himself, it left a fuming Wilshere to say: “There’s going to be more to come on that over the next few days from a lot of clubs, because ultimately that goal there keeps some clubs out of the play-offs. It stops some clubs from having an opportunity to number one, get to the Championship, but what that means getting to the Championship, the financial gains and what that means to the club. We’re in League One next year and I’ve got a meeting next week about what the budget is going to be and who do we need to cut. That’s people's livelihoods at stake just because of one decision and really, really not good enough across the season and it has to change."

With the Boro goal fresh in his mind, Wilshere felt it showed what he believes is a serious lack of quality amongst the officials in League One, pointing back to several incidents he has witnessed since he took over, including Mads Andersen’s possible winner against Lincoln City in January not being allowed to stand by referee Scott Oldham, who was fooled when Imps keeper George Wickens went to ground, awarding a free kick, after videos showed afterwards the stopper had actually punched himself before going over.

Wilshere continued: “I’m pretty sure you guys have seen the Stevenage goal, I wouldn’t say I’m surprised because I’m sure when I’m in the process of reflecting on the season there will be some games, I look back to the Lincoln game where we didn’t get the goal we deserved and some other decisions and it’s been across the board that’s not been good enough. That’s definitely something, it’s out of our control, but now I’d like to think that as managers we’d like to come together and have a discussion about how we improve that because it’s not been good enough all season.”

Finally, the boss also thought that Luton should have been playing against 10 men for the majority of the game against Bolton too, as Max Conway clipped Izzy Jones when he got in behind him to burst into the box. Referee Carl Brook, who had shown a hefty 14 red cards already this term, opted for a yellow on this occasion, and a spotkick for the Hatters which Jordan Clark tucked away, but asked if he thought the punishment should have been greater, Wilshere added “Yes.

"It takes me back to the Cardiff game, a similar situation where I don’t really understand, because they said it’s a genuine attempt to play the ball, but I can’t get my head around it. If someone’s behind you, you can’t have an attempt to play the ball, so it’s a red card. To be honest with you, credit to the players, it didn’t really matter in the end because we’ve got a lot of character to come back again and win a game of football at a tough place, but you think about the decisions across the season rather than that one moment today.”