Robins boss felt his side deserved to beat Luton and should have been awarded a 'stonewall' penalty

Bristol City boss Dean Holden felt his side had deserved to come out on top of last night’s 2-1 defeat to Luton at Kenilworth Road.

The Robins had fallen behind to Glen Rea’s cracking volley on 17 minutes, threatening a leveller before half time, Antonie Semenyo having his penalty appeals turned down, while seeing an effort saved by Simon Sluga, with ex-Hatters attacker Chris Martin also heading against the bar.

They did equalise after the break, Town skipper Sonny Bradley turning Nahki Wells’ cross into his own net on the hour mark, before Luton hit back strongly to claim the win courtesy of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s 20-yard strike eight minutes later.

Speaking afterwards, Holden said: “We’ve lost some games this season we’ve deserved to lose, I don’t think tonight was one of them.

“We’ve created chances throughout the game, we’ve taken the game to Luton, we’ve ultimately lost it on two poor goals from our point of view.

“Another set-piece and the second one we got too deep from the goal kick and then give the ball away cheaply, so we weren’t able to muster any real pressure in that last 15 minutes.

“We just didn’t seem to have the energy on the pitch to do that, a couple of lads going down with cramp, but I think we’ve played a way that’s allowed us to create chances.

“We’ve moved it well on a real bumpy, terrible pitch, we hit the crossbar first half, we had a stonewall penalty not given, but we have to regroup and stick together.

“We fancied our chances to come here and get a result and we played well enough to get something, arguably deserved to win the game.

“On a really poor surface, we talked about making sure we didn't play with any real risk and other times we've passed it really well.

"It’s just decision making and they're learning on the job a lot of them.”

Holden was also left questioning official Gavin Ward for not giving his side a first half spotkick, adding: “It was stonewall, and there was one on Nahki Wells before that.

“You don't sometimes get decisions like that, I'm not sure why he didn't give it, but he didn't.

“We’ve shown some character though and I thought we moved the ball really well at times, created some really good moments and just weren't able to put that finishing touch to it.

“To concede that goal in the second half when we had all the momentum, all the ball really, it looked like there was only one team that was going to win it.

"So it’s a difficult one to take from us but we have to take it and move on.”