Luton chief has warned his defenders to be 'careful' after dubious Sunderland spot-kick during 1-1 draw

Luton boss Rob Edwards has warned his side to be extra careful when making any challenges inside their own penalty area during the play-off semi-final first leg at Sunderland tomorrow to avoid a repeat of the controversial penalty they conceded on their last visit to Wearside.

Back in March, the Hatters were 1-0 up and looking like recording yet another victory on the road thanks to Alfie Doughty’s strike from outside the box which went straight through home stopper Anthony Patterson.

However, with four minutes remaining, on-loan Manchester United attacker Amad Diallo, who had only just come on, burst into the box, before throwing himself to the ground under what can only be described as minimal contact at best from Amari’i Bell.

It was enough to deceive the officials though, as despite first time Championship referee Scott Oldham appearing to have been wise to the Black Cats' attacker’s antics, he was then swayed after consultation with his assistant, awarding a spot-kick that Diallo convincingly netted to salvage a point.

Retired Premier League official Chris Foy stated afterwards in his Sky Sports feature, that it was the wrong call, and with Diallo likely to be starting for Tony Mowbray's team on Saturday, when asked if he had spoken to his defenders ahead of the clash, Edwards said: “It’s something that we’re aware of.

"They’ve got some very good players, tricky players, clever players, bright and some great movement at the top end of the pitch and in that area, so we’ve got to make sure that we are careful.

“In terms of it being a game we should have won, because we were one-nil up so late and the penalty wasn’t a penalty, we’ve had that confirmed from the referees as well, it did change the game.

"But Sunderland did have their moments as they always do in any game anyway.

"It was a tight game, there wasn’t loads of chances, they hit the woodwork from distance and they had one or two good moments as well, especially some fast attacks.”

Town defender Tom Lockyer had cut a disconsolate figure after the game when speaking to the press, unable to hide his frustration that the decision had gone against Town.

With the man in the middle tomorrow being Tim Robinson, while Simon Hooper has the home leg, the Welsh international is hopeful there will be no repeat of such an error, as he said: “I’m sure the EFL have the best officials in the play-offs now don’t they.

"I don’t know who’s taking the game, but hopefully it’s one who can manage the occasion, because it is going to be a good atmosphere up there.

"I was frustrated at the time, but maybe it evens itself out over the season, so it's one of those things.”

Although it was only from the spot that Tony Mowbray’s side were able to breach the Hatters on that day, Edwards knows the Black Cats have plenty of attacking threats in their armoury, after winning four from their last six and scoring 11 goals, to reach the play-offs.

He added: “(Joe) Gelhardt, Diallo, (Patrick) Roberts, (Jack) Clarke, they’re pretty good, aren’t they?

“There’s other good players around that and I don’t want to be disrespectful to anyone else, but people in the recent past have paid a lot of money for some of those lads.

“So, there’s a lot of quality in them and they’ve certainly delivered this season, they’ve been very good.

“They’ve got some brilliant individuals, it’s hard to keep them out for the full 90-odd minutes, but we did well up there.

"I think they made a lot of changes around 72, 73 minutes that probably had a little change in the game, tweaking the shape and then obviously the penalty then make a difference.

"It was a tight game up there and I’m expecting probably something similar.”