Luton Town opened the scoring with a first-half penalty but Grant McCann didn’t agree with the referee’s decision

Doncaster Rovers suffered a 3-1 defeat at Kenilworth Road in a difficult evening against promotion hopefuls Luton Town.

A penalty from Callum Marshall and a brace from Jamie Donley decided the contest, with Bayley McCann bagging his first ever Football League goal to give the travelling fans something to cheer about in an otherwise disappointing evening in Bedfordshire.

The result takes the Hatters up to eighth position heading into Halloween and leaves Doncaster Rovers ten places lower with a tricky away match against MK Dons on the horizon.

Here’s Grant McCann’s assessement of the loss at Kenilworth Road as he expressed his frustration at one key referee decision which he felt flipped the momentum against his team.

Grant McCann left furious at controversial refereeing decision

Grant McCann expressed his disappointment at a referee decision which he thinks cost his side in the loss to Luton Town. | Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD

placeholder image — Grant McCann expressed his disappointment at a referee decision which he thinks cost his side in the loss to Luton Town. | Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD

“I think we’ve been done by a poor decision from the referee in the first-half,” McCann explained.

“First-half there’s nothing in the game. We were quite good, had an early chance with Neill Byrne, it’s a free header, he should score, he knows that.

“When your away from home you need to try and take those opportunities. We didn’t. And then the one big decision at the end of the first-half goes against us. Kasey Palmer dives in the box and the referee gives a penalty. There’s no point sugercoating it. That’s what happened.

“Really disappointing that we’ve been undone on that, particularly coming away from home. Second-half we never got going, Luton were better than us for about 25-30 minutes but I think that decision gave them momentum. And we struggled after that.

“The opening goal changed everything. It gave us a different kind of team talk in the first-half and they’re bouncing. And the decision’s really hurt us from the moment it happened and the minute we came out second half.

“We’re just not getting the rub of the green. I don’t want to be standing here with the violin but it’s true. You need strong officiating in moments like that.

“I’ll hold my hands up we were poor second half well maybe not poor actually they were very good.”