Cuthbert felt Aldred went over too easily for Blackpool penalty

Hatters skipper Scott Cuthbert felt he was harshly done by to concede a penalty in last night's 3-2 first leg play-off semi-final defeat at Blackpool.
Scott Cuthbert heads clear against BlackpoolScott Cuthbert heads clear against Blackpool
Scott Cuthbert heads clear against Blackpool

Town’s skipper was penalised by referee Nigel Miller on 67 minutes for holding Tangerines defender Tom Aldred inside the area for a spotkick that ex-Luton forward Mark Cullen converted.

Boss Nathan Jones felt was a ‘soft’ decision against his captain, while Cuthbert himself said: “The referee has given a penalty against me for holding my man, but I think the two of us were kind of holding each other.

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“He’s 6 foot 4, a big lump of a boy and he’s fallen down quite easy to be honest.”

Cuthbert was disappointed with himself for allowing Miller to make the call though, saying: “I’m disappointed I gave the ref an opportunity by putting my hands on him, I can’t deny that.

“He’s taken the opportunity and seen the tug and gave the penalty.

“But just two minutes before that, he’s run into me and pulled me and the ref’s warned him to stop the tugging or else he’s going to give a foul.”

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The skipper knew that Town shouldn’t have even been defending the set-piece though, with James Justin wrongly adjudged to have fouled Neil Danns when clearly winning the ball on the edge of the box.

He continued: “It wasn’t a free kick. I was there and JJ’s won the ball.

“The ball’s stood still as soon as he’s contacted with it, so it wasn’t a free kick to begin with.”

Luton had penalty shouts of their own late on too, with Danny Hylton pushed over by Aldred and then not one but two handball appeals waved away, as Cuthbert said: “From my angle, I think the boy has handled it twice, he’s blocked the ball twice with his hands.

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“I’ve not seen it on the camera, but I thought it was enough for a free kick or penalty on Hylts when the centre back has just kind of two arm pushed him over as well, and he never gave that.

“It’s just one of those things. The ref calls it as he sees it and unfortunately they get given a penalty and we never.”

Meanwhile, team-mate Dan Potts also felt his side were on the wrong end of the key decisions throughout, as he added: “We could have had two penalties ourselves. I haven’t seen any of it back, I’ve just heard what the lads have seen and what the coaches have seen.

“I think you can see from the reaction, Ollie Palmer summed it up, he probably could have had another chance if he wasn’t that sure it was a penalty.

“You just hope if the ref’s can just be even with their decisions, that’s all you can ask for,

“Maybe looking back we didn’t get the rub of the green, but that’s just one of those things.”

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