Lockyer: Referee apologised to us after Blackburn's late drop-ball winner

Luton defender Tom Lockyer was left unimpressed by referee Jeremy Simpson after his part in Blackburn Rovers’ late winner at Ewood Park yesterday.

With the scores goalless and five minutes remaining of a contest that Town most definitely deserved a point from at the very least, visiting full back Dan Potts went down after receiving a blow from a Rovers cross that flew into his midriff from close range.

Official Simpson stopped play, allowing Potts to recover, but once he was on his feet again, dropped the ball straight at the feet of midfielder Lewis Holtby some 20 yards back from the incident.

He quickly sent a cross into the box and with Town’s defence not anticipating the swift restart, substitute Sam Gallagher was left in acres of space to head the ball back across goal for an unmarked Adam Armstrong to nod past an exposed Simon Sluga.

Speaking afterwards, Lockyer said: “It’s gutting to be honest, the ref’s apologised for it, said he’s made a mistake, but what can you do?

“We don’t seem to get the rub of the green with the officials at the minute, Chelsea, Brentford as well, so it's one of those things, what can you do?

“We probably can't put all the blame on him, we should be looking and being alert, but literally I've turned around, he's (Simpson) dropped the ball, he's (Holtby) swung one straight in, and that's the first I've seen.

“So if we knew that he was going to just drop the ball there's no way he would be in that space in the box, no way at all, so it's something we have to learn from."

Manager Nathan Jones described the manner in which Town conceded left him feeling physically sick, having pointed out the aerial threat of Gallagher at half time, the striker scoring twice from his two previous appearances off the bench against Luton.

However, Lockyer felt there were mitigating circumstances on this occasion, as he continued: “If I knew the ball was about to come in, he wouldn't be in that space, it's as simple as that.

"But when I see the ball is being dropped, I look around to see where he (Gallagher) is, and the geezer's crossing it in already, so there’s actually nothing I could do, so it’s one of those things.

"He (Simpson) literally just dropped it and ran away and the geezer has all the time in the world to just whip a ball into the box.

“Like I said, if we knew that was going on, there’s no way a big target man would be in six feet of space in the penalty area.

"I'm frustrated, disappointed, I haven’t seen it back, but I don't think it will be too pretty.

"That being said, it's a tough place to come, I think the lads did really well and we’re unlucky not to be leading.

"We limited them to very little and what we did give them were our own downfalls, so there's plenty of positives to take.”

To make matters worse for the Hatters, they thought they had levelled moments after Armstrong’s opener, when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's free kick was poked goalwards by Sonny Bradley.

It was missed on the line by Danny Hylton, his effort hitting the post, with Harry Cornick then smashing the loose ball into the top corner for what would have been a first goal of the season on his 150th Town appearance, only for a linesman's flag, believed to be given against Bradley, to rule it out.

Lockyer added: “I haven't seen it back, so it might be a good decision, I'd rather it is a good decision than us be done again.

"Hopefully it is offside, but it is frustrating, you just need the rub of the green sometimes.

"I just think we're very aggrieved from the manner we conceded the goal against us, so we thought, 'you know what, get straight back in it.'

"I was buzzing when that went in and so gutted to see the linesman put his flag up for that, but if he's offside, we can't really complain."