Opinion: Burnley badly let down by officials as Luton Town snatch galling last-gasp draw

This would have been an absolutely huge win for Burnley. To be robbed of three points right at the death is bad enough. But for it to happen in these circumstances? Absolutely galling.

Did Burnley play well? Not particularly. Would they have deserved the victory? That’s up for debate.

Either way, that’s besides the point, because this was rightfully billed as a must-win clash between two sides fighting for their lives at the bottom end of the Premier League table and the only thing that mattered was the end result.

The fact that Luton boss Rob Edwards came out after the game and spoke openly, eloquently and honestly about the sympathy he has for Kompany regarding his side’s controversial late goal suggests referee Tony Harrington might just have got this one wrong.

So let’s get straight into it, shall we?

Moment of truth

While Luton had played well and had impressed many with their approach, dominating with 62 per cent of possession, it’s fair to say they were running out of ideas during the final stages.

They had large spells of pressure, of course they did. Burnley were hanging onto a slender one-goal lead and Kompany had switched to a back five to see out the game.

It looked, by and large, like it was working. For all of Luton’s possession, they weren’t creating any notable chances and the hosts were doing a pretty good job of keeping them at arm’s length.

Yet a late cross two minutes into stoppage-time changed everything. James Trafford came rushing out of his goal to deal with it, a decision questioned by many, but prior to that the keeper had done well claiming crosses for pretty much the entirety of the game, so why change now?

It looked as though Trafford was about to deal with this one too, but Elijah Adebayo – pretty smartly, it has to be said – not only stood his ground, but also backed into him to stop his marauding run to claim the ball. That allowed fellow striker Carlton Morris the opportunity to head home unopposed into the back of the unguarded net.

What ensued for the following minute or so was utterly bizarre. The Luton fans celebrated, but barely. There certainly wasn’t much conviction in their delight.

The Luton players, too, weren’t exactly behaving like they’d just rescued a valuable point right at the death of a huge survival showdown.

While it was alarming that referee Harrington had failed to spot the foul, especially as he had a good view of it, at least we could rely on VAR to come to the right decision. Right? RIGHT?!

Wrong. Apparently no foul occurred, with the PGMOL later informing TNT Sports it was a simple coming together, a collision between two players. Incredible.

A long way back

Burnley only have themselves to blame for the plight they find themselves in, but talk about a sliding doors moment. Had they held on for the win, they’d be sitting just two points adrift of safety now.

Instead, the gap is four points and both Luton and Everton have a game in hand apiece. Next up for the Clarets is Man City away too…

Not only that, this will act as another crushing blow to Burnley’s confidence, which can’t exactly be sky high as it is with only one win in their last seven league games.

It’s a long, long way back now. Kompany won’t be admitting defeat, he said as much after the game, but he’ll know the task of staying up is gargantuan.

When his anger subsides, he’ll no doubt reflect on what was a fairly mixed display from his troops.

For much of the first-half, his side were well off the pace. In fact, for the first half an hour they were given the runaround by Luton, who cleverly orchestrated overloads down both flanks.

Full-backs Ameen Al-Dakhil and Vitinho were struggling, but at the same time that should come as no surprise when they were consistently left to fend for themselves in two-vs-one scenarios.

But for as much as the Hatters were on top and dominating territory and possession, they struggled to carve open much of real note.

Trafford dealt with a couple of efforts, pushing Ross Barkley’s curler over the bar and saving Chiedozie Ogbene’s near post effort, but it’s not like Luton were missing chance after chance.

The Clarets eventually got to grips with Luton’s system and were beginning to finally grow into the game when they opened the scoring, which still came against the run of play.

Wilson Odobert was the architect. Defensively, the winger didn’t offer a great deal but going forwards the youngster was electric.

Not for the first time he beat his man down the left flank before pulling the ball back for Zeki Amdouni, who just about forced the ball home for his fifth goal of the campaign.

After that, the remainder of the game was relatively even. Both sides had spells but Burnley defended their box well and created the more gilt-edged chances.

Prior to the opener, Johann Gudmundsson should have scored early on while Odobert scuffed his lines in front of goal. The hosts also squandered good, good chances on the break to put the game to bed in the second-half, but lacked quality in the final moment.

For that, Burnley deserve criticism. But for what transpired afterwards? They were badly let down.