Luton boss felt Red Devils 'got away with one' as Brazilian international Casemiro avoids red card

Luton boss Rob Edwards felt Manchester United midfielder Casemiro should have been sent off during this evening’s Premier League clash at Kenilworth Road that ended 2-1 to the visitors.

The vastly experienced Brazilian international had already seen a yellow card for tripping Amari’i Bell as he looked to break away, before he made a far worse challenge when cleaning out Ross Barkley in the closing stages of the first half. He was somehow not shown a second caution by a lenient referee David Coote, although didn’t reappear for the second period, taken off with England defender Harry Maguire, who had also been booked for a foul on Carlton Morris.

Asked whether he felt he was lucky to stay on the pitch, Edwards said: “Yes, I think the fact that he came off at half time probably tells you. I think they're saying the first one wasn’t, but just because the first one wasn’t doesn't mean the second one isn’t, so maybe they got away with one there. I can’t do anything about it now and it happens, mistakes can happen.

"Things can go against us, it’s all right, we’ve got to deal with it. We shot ourselves in the foot, we caused ourselves one or two problems early on and we have to recover, so I’m not going to blame any officiating or them not going down to 10 men. Some things went against us tonight, some things were our fault, and maybe one or two bits weren’t, but I’m not going to complain about that.”

Red Devils head coach Erik ten Hag admitted that he had no option but to take off the duo in case they saw were dismissed, although he felt Casemiro’s yellow was an incredibly harsh decision, adding: “I think the game was going in the direction, there was a lot of pressure on the referee, they both were a risk for another booking and we have a good replacement with Scott McTominay and Jonny Evans.

"So that's why we took them off, we didn't want to go in that risk. It looked like even when he (Casemiro) is not touching opponents he gets booked and often on the first moment in the game as well. It is crazy and today was similar. It was so unfair, the first booking. The second could have been given and that's why I took him off. It's difficult to play if you don't even touch an opponent and then you get booked.”