Town manager convinced 'contentious' refereeing decisions have to turn in Luton's favour

Hatters manager Matt Bloomfield is convinced the amount of contentious refereeing decisions that have gone against Luton in recent games have to start to go in his side’s favour soon rather than later.

The Town manager was left to rue a number of calls made by official Stephen Martin when he took charge of Burnley’s 4-0 victory over his relegation-threatened charges at the weekend. Having been reduced to 10 men on 19 minutes, Kal Naismith dismissed for two bookings, the first a caution that Bloomfield didn’t agree with, he then got in the way of midfielder Zack Nelson when he was trying to run the ball out of trouble, as the Clarets swiftly put it into the visitors’ net.

Early in the second period, both Martin and his assistant failed to spot the ball crossing the line for a goal-kick, Marcus Edwards teeing up Josh Brownhill to sweep home, while in the closing stages, a high boot on Christ Makosso by Jeremy Sarmiento in the penalty area also went unpunished. It led to a clearly annoyed Bloomfield, who didn’t want to get a fine for by discussing the incidents in greater detail, being asked if he had heard anything from the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited).

He said: “There’s been some dialogue, but we haven’t had the official feedback. The official feedback I’ve had recently was the penalty against Watford wasn’t a penalty, Portsmouth could have had two red cards, had none and the feedback unofficially I’m getting is that there are several contentious decisions on Saturday. It’s extremely frustrating. We’re away from home against Burnley, they’re a very good team and need to be respected.

"We were really pleased with the work we did for 20 minutes, with 10 men it’s going to be a lot tougher but there’s big moments in the game that have gone against us that are frustrating. I’m not going to say too much as I’m not going to spend any of my money on a fine that I don’t need to because I’m not going to gain anything from it, we need to let that go. You have runs like this in football where all of the decisions go against you, but that doesn’t go on forever and that has to turn at some point. We have to start getting some decisions in our favour because that’s the game.

"The only way we’re going to do that is keep believing in what we’re doing, keep working towards what we’re doing and not let that affect our mindset, our belief and our personality going into the game. That has to be our sole focus. Unfortunately as a football manager there’s a lot out of your control and you can’t affect it as much as you want to, because when you put your whole life into a job you want to affect it all and have an imprint in everything, but you can’t.

"There are some things that are out of your control. Availability of players, when they’re fit, when they’re ill, when they’re not fit, refereeing decisions, so you have to focus on what you can control. If you do that often enough and work hard enough, be diligent enough, then the game tells you it turns in your favour. That’s the only way it can go. We believe in that and we’ll keep working towards it.”

Another aspect that disappointed Bloomfield was that midfielder Jordan Clark saw yellow for disputing the decision to allow Burnley’s third goal, despite being named captain on the day which allowed him to discuss the incident with the officials. He added: “It was similar to my reaction. I got booked last weekend against Portsmouth when my player (Liam Walsh) gets kicked when the ball is three metres away. We should be able to stick up for ourselves and our team, but unfortunately when you do you get double punished. It’s the rules of the game at the moment.”