Wilshere hits out at bad refereeing decisions as Town boss to serve touchline ban at Dons
Luton manager booked for his reaction against Peterborough
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere was left baffled by the decision-making of referee Isaac Searle and his assistants this afternoon, which has left him with a touch-line ban when Town head to AFC Wimbledon on Easter Monday.
The man in the middle, who was officiating a League One game for the first time during a career that he has spent the majority of in the National League South and National League, with seven League Two fixtures games under his belt, was given the contest between Luton and Peterborough at Kenilworth Road.
After a fairly quiet start to proceedings, Luton going ahead through Jake Richards’ strike, his first indiscretion came on 35 minutes when Harry Leonard was sent clean through on Josh Keeley, dinking over the Irish stopper before going over his trailing leg, Hakeem Odoffin racing back to clear off the line. With the Posh fans cheers dying in their throats and the Hatters fans rejoicing, Searle then punctured the noise by blowing his whistle for a spotkick that saw Keeley booked for his remonstrations, as he argued he had also got a touch on the effort from the visiting attacker.
It fell on deaf ears though, but once the situation calmed down, Keeley recovered to save Leonard’s weak attempt, his second penalty stop this season, as asked if thought it was a spotkick, Wilshere said: “No, I think the reaction of the players, both sets of players, if they’re not appealing for it and our players are not kind of giving the ref a sneaky look, I think that tells you everything, but a bad decision in my opinion. I think it was an important moment in the game as you could feel in the crowd, the crowd didn’t think it was a penalty as well.
"Then when Josh saved it, the crowd got really lifted and I think that’s important for Josh and a big moment for Josh. He was really disappointed with the Stockport game with the goal he conceded (Oliver Norwood’s free kick), but he’s been excellent this season. He came up with an important moment then and I think back to the Stockport game away from home where he did similar at an important time in the game, so a good save, but it shouldn’t have been a pen.”
With Jordan Clark making it 2-0 early in the second half, the Luton fans and Davy van den Berg in particular, were left aggrieved on 75 minutes when they felt the ball had gone out as Kyrell Lisbie carried it forward on the left flank. The assistant’s flag stayed down though as van den Berg was guilty of stopping to angrily protest rather than play to the whistle, as the winger went on to pick out Jimmy-Jay Morgan who headed home to halve the deficit.
Wilshere continued: “There were so many decisions that weren’t the right ones. Honestly, I haven’t see that one back so I’m not talking about that one, I think about a few offsides that the linesman gave that weren’t offside as well, so disappointing, but Davy has to keep going.”
Finally, and the incident that means Wilshere will now be in the stands at Plough Lane, came in stoppage time as substitute Kasey Palmer tricked his way to get in on goal and had his shirt clearly tugged back in the act of shooting, which allowed Aled Bass to repel with his legs.
Searle somehow didn’t agree though and Wilshere was shown yellow for his reaction in the dug-out, his third booking of the season, as on the incident, he added: “Again a bad decision. I don’t understand how it’s not a penalty? Again you look at the reaction of the players and he’s actually pulled Kasey down and interrupted his finish. He was going to score, so I don’t understand how that’s not a penalty. I need to speak to the staff and we need to come up with a process for Monday that works for us. It’s frustrating because it was a penalty and then if the penalty happens, I don’t get booked, but it is what it is.”