In last week's blog I mentioned the need for our fans not to be outnumbered by the large following that Luton were bringing. You responded greatly by providing over 2000 home supporters in the largest home gate of the season. I thought first half we played some really good stuff and deservedly went a goal up. They then had a man dismissed for a bad foul on skipper Chris Mcphee and I really believed we would comfortably win the game and possibly by a healthy scoreline.

However, despite giving himself every chance to continue, Chris had to leave the pitch due to the injury suffered in the red card incident. Things got worse seconds later when big Robbie Matthews and the opposition goalkeeper both went for a fifty-fifty challenge. Their keeper won the race for the ball and as 15-and-a-half-stone-6ft4 Robbie hurdled the keeper in an attempt to avoid contact, the wind from his boot brushed his opponents's leg. Cue 1000 'Mad Hatters' behind the goal and several players demanding action for an alleged stamp. Sure enough, 2 minutes after showing a red card for an x rated tackle that put our skipper out of action for a couple of weeks, the referee brought out his red card again and made it 10 men all.

Luton came out after the break and brought the game to us. In the end, their possession and pressure told as they ran out 2-1 victors. From a management point of view we need to learn why we weren't the better side in the second half like we had been in the first. We watched the video with the lads and I believe we pin pointed our mistakes in the second half which prevented us from taking all 3 points. We have, since that video, worked on the things that we needed to to improve ourselves as a team. I hope this shows that we do not get blinded by other aspects of the game that may or may not have influenced the game.

That said, we are still angry and hurt that we didn't win the game. I believe, as does everyone I have spoken to who was at the game, that the referee got the Robbie sending off wrong. Robbie had every opportunity to go in hard on their keeper and could have, if he had wanted to, hurt him. He never did, though. In a few moments, we had gone from being so comfortable and wondering how many we may score against a beaten side, to suddenly playing a rejuvinated Luton team, who now had their tails up and were using their players' years of football league experience and passionate away support to get back in the game. We had to quash their momentum without 2 of our most influential players in the team and ultimately were unable to do it.

As I said, we have not put our heads in the sand and blamed the referee for us not performing in the second half. From a footballing point of view we have learnt some lessons and hopefully we can now move on. However, the referee did get a very important decision wrong which had a huge impact on the dynamics of the game. We then went on to lose the game and that is why we were so angry with the result.

Obviously we decided to appeal the sending-off but as soon as I saw the incident on the dvd I didn't hold out much hope. Although we had pictures showing barely, if any, contact had been made between the 2 players, a defender blocks the view of the moment the alleged stamp must have occurred. In these instances, the disciplinary panel says they have no reason to disagree with the referee's decision. Sure enough, about an hour ago we had a fax from the FA telling us our appeal had been unsuccessful.

Anyway, what we will do is put the whole incident behind us now. We have no Robbie Matthews for 3 games and no Chris Mcphee for an as yet unknown amount of time but we have another 18 players at the Club desperate to do well. Saturday won't be a quiet affair. Steve Evans brings his Crawley team to town!

See you then.

Neil