Martin felt Foxes were denied a definite penalty in Hatters loss
City boss reacts to Luton defeat
Leicester City boss Russell Martin felt his side were denied a definite penalty during their 2-1 defeat at Luton yesterday.
Trailing 1-0 to Nahki Wells’ first half goal, the Foxes were building pressure during the second period, although restricted mainly to shots from range, until a deep cross was nodded back into the six-yard box for Conor Chaplin to meet it. He was denied by a fine reactions save by James Shea, before Liam Walsh launched into an overhead kick clearance which saw him only just connect with the ball before City’s Will Smallbone, as the visitors called for a spotkick.
Referee Martin Woods turned down the appeals, a decision that Russell Martin felt was the wrong one, as he said afterwards: “We should have had a penalty on Will Smallbone for a high foot. The boy’s foot is over head height, anywhere else on the pitch and that’s a foul. That’s my only frustration, but it is what it is. That’s not why we lost, we gave away two rubbish goals.
Asked if he felt Town had got away with one there, Luton chief Jack Wilshere stated: “I don’t know, I genuinely don’t know the rule on that. Will it be a penalty or will it be an indirect free kick for a high boot? I didn’t think it was, I think he cleared the ball. Their bench thought it was and at the time, I was like, I don’t think it is, but it’s something I’ll have to watch back.”
Martin had also been cursing the officials at the time for disallowing Emil Riis’ strike on the half hour mark when the scores were goalless. With James Shea getting fingertips to Will Alves’ attempt, the rebound was then put back into the danger area by Kamari Doyle, where a prostrate Riis turned it over the line.
Although the linesman awarded the goal, Town’s players were quick to argue that with Riis being behind Shea, and only Mads Andersen on the goal-line, that he was in fact offside, an outcome that Woods eventually agreed with and the goal was chalked off. Martin continued: “I don’t think it was clear anywhere. It was probably the right decision having seen it back and I’ve been told it is. My frustration is with the process of how they got there, as I got told the linesman didn’t see, but the ref was really sure about the numbers, so it is what it is.
"We lacked the energy we had in the last few games, the aggression to get up to the ball. We spoke so much about the behaviours at the start of the game, but gave away two poor goals today and that's frustration. We didn't start the game well, weathered the storm and then just the aggression and fight in our team in the second half was so much better.”
Giving his thoughts on the disallowed goal, Wilshere said: “I watched it back on the iPad and at the time, I was like, I can’t see it, but then of course he’s behind the goalie, so he’s offside, good decision. You can always tell and it doesn’t always give you the answers, but the reaction of the players, whether it be a tackle, whether it be an offside, you can always tell. It’s gone for us today and we’re thankful for that, but there’s always been times when it hasn’t gone and there will be more times this season where it doesn’t go our way, so it’s nice that it did, they won’t feel the same.”
To make matters worse for Martin, he saw his side finish with 10 men when captain John Lundstram was sent off for his second yellow card with five minutes left. Despite the numerical disadvantage, it looked like they were going to rescue a point when Liam Cullen bent home a terrific shot from the edge of the box in the last minute, only for Callum Marshall to restore Luton’s advantage in stoppage time.
The Foxes added: “He’s been amazing, but when you’re on a yellow card you can’t tackle like that, especially here. We did so well to get ourselves back in the game with 10 men, it’s so disappointing as within a couple of minutes the feeling can be so different. It can feel like a win almost, down to 10 men battling draw brilliant goal and then we concede a goal, it’s frustrating, as the only time they entered our box really, and we gave a goal away.”