Jones unhappy with Bamford’s opener as Leeds win at Luton to move second
Luton boss Graeme Jones was adamant Leeds’ opener in their 2-1 win at Kenilworth Road should have been ruled out.
Jones believes Kalvin Phillips fouled Izzy Brown in the build-up to Patrick Bamford’s 51st-minute opener.
James Collins levelled almost immediately, before Bamford laid claim to Leeds’ last-minute winner, the official verdict being an own goal but Bamford claiming he got a touch.
Jones was unhappy with the opener and also with other decisions during the game.
“I don’t think I’m a biased manager, I think I try to be fair and try to be subjective with things,” Jones said.
“In my opinion, I’ve looked at the clips back, it’s a foul on Izzy, taking his legs from him.
“In my opinion, it’s a penalty on James Collins, he gets the other side and gets kicked and in my opinion, Matty Pearson is onside.
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“We’re playing Leeds United, the gulf is already big enough and when you don’t get decisions like that going your way and your team has given absolutely everything they’ve got, it’s a difficult one to swallow.
“I was delighted with aspects of the performance apart from the final result.
“There comes a point where you have to admire the boys who gave absolutely everything, they were just three minutes short of getting a result.
“Obviously we have to turn those performances into points. These (Leeds) are the best team in the league, I’ve analysed them enough to say that.
“I see them cutting through teams and I mean at will, and they had more shots than us, they had possession, but we were always in the game, and that’s the satisfying aspect.”
Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa could understand Jones’ frustration, but felt the decision could not be blamed for the goal.
He said: “We had 15 chances to score, I don’t link the possible foul with the possibility of scoring, you can interpret it like that, but the possible foul was 80 metres away from the opponents goal.
“In those 80 metres, happened a lot of things that aren’t linked with the beginning of the action and the development and the finish of the chance, but I can understand the opponent and maybe the supporters can link both situations.
“I think the result was fair, it was a good performance from the team.
“In the first half, it was a little bit easier for us, but in the second half we had to fight a little bit more.
“It’s very difficult to win if you don’t fight you don’t have a good condition to play, and if you want to win, you have to right, if not you cannot.”
After a first half in which Town keeper James Shea made a superb double save from Phillips and Jack Harrison to keep the scores goalless, Leeds led on 51 minutes through Bamford’s opener.
Three minutes later, Collins powered home his sixth of the season from Brown’s fantastic cross, before the late winner.
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