Luton chief felt Blues defender Roberts deserved a red card for his challenge on Morris

Town boss Rob Edwards felt Birmingham defender Marc Roberts should have been sent off for his challenge on Luton match-winner Carlton Morris this afternoon.

The visitors had taken an early lead in the second half through Morris’s excellent 13th goal of the season, his downward header bouncing into the top corner from Alfie Doughty’ left wing cross.

With 64 minutes then gone, Roberts was brought on as part of a triple substitution, but just over 60 seconds later, he went flying in on Morris, with a knee high challenge right in front of the official, only to escape with a caution.

Morris tried to continue, but was eventually forced off, with Luton’s head of physiotherapy Simon Parsell tweeting: “Just witnessed the worst tackle.

"Followed by the worst refereeing decision.

"How can u get away with that. @LutonTown.”

It was an opinion that Edwards clearly agreed with, saying: “He's hurt his shoulder, we don't know what the extent of that is yet, we’ll have to get that scanned.

"I do think the challenge was a poor one and I know it happened quickly.

"It’s difficult for the ref sometimes, but it wasn't a yellow card so that’s disappointing, because we could lose him now and we know how important he is for us.

"What it does is give others opportunities and I thought Cauley Woodrow was excellent when he came on, really, really good.

"We know he's a top player so if we’re without Carlton for a period of time then we've got to rally which we did today.”

Asked if the official had given a reason for his leniency afterwards, Edwards added: “He felt that he got the ball but we feel that it warranted a red clearly, so maybe when he sees it back he’ll think differently.

"Again I’m not one for coming out and criticising refs as I know it’s a difficult job, and you won’t really see me doing that but I think in this instance, he got it wrong.

“I’m not going to talk about them in general.

"It is a difficult job, things do happen very, very quickly.

"The frustrating thing today is it’s my team and my players, we want to protect them and we want to keep our best players fit.

"Carlton is one of our best players, so let’s just hope he’s all right.”