Gary O’Neil says Luton a penalty that cost Wolves was a ‘terrible decision’

Joao Gomes was deemed to have handled the ball in the box which allowed Carlton Morris to cancel out Pedro Neto’s opener from the spot.

O’Neil highlighted the inconsistencies of referee Josh Smith and said the decision did not reflect the official Premier League rules on handballs.

“It’s never a penalty, it’s an absolutely terrible decision,” O’Neil said. “I think if that’s a penalty then we’re in a real bad place with where the rules are.

“I’ve got the rules they sent us on my phone and the mitigating circumstances for handballs are ‘if it hits the same player on a different body part and has a significant change of trajectory then it’s not handball’.

“It’s hit Joao on the leg first. I forgive the referee. Their reasoning is that Joao’s hand is too far away from his body which I get but it’s hit his leg first before and the rules state that should not be a penalty.

“I don’t understand, hopefully they can improve the level they’re at and we can start to get our fair share (of decisions).”

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde was shown a straight red card by referee Josh Smith when he kicked out at Hatters skipper Tom Lockyer in the first half.

O’Neil admitted the dismissal was not acceptable if Wolves are to pick up more points and that it reflects the “craziness” in his squad.

He said: “I only saw it back on the iPad and it looked like a coming together and it looked like Jean kicked out a little bit. I’ll watch it back to get a clear view on it but if he has kicked out then you can understand the red card.

“Jean’s very disappointed about it, he apologised to the group and myself. It’s something which we can’t have.

“I spoke a lot about trying to fix some of the craziness in the group and that’s an extreme version of it.

“We can’t be successful in football matches if someone does that (gets a red card). How we leave with a point after that is one hell of an effort from everybody.”

Rob Edwards believes Luton are still a work in progress after the Hatters’ winless run was extended to five games, although they picked up their first Premier League point.

Edwards said: “I think we’ve not been great yet, I think we’re getting better but we’re still a work in progress because we haven’t been great.

“Against Brighton we gave away too many chances and that was the same against Chelsea. I think we’re finding ways to be more competitive and get points on the board.

“We’re getting better and I’ve got to stress that but you have to be very good to get points when playing in this league.”

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