FERGUSON: HATTERS MAN A DISGRACE FOR ELBOW
Rovers boss calls for Hylton ban
DONCASTER boss Darren Ferguson implored the game’s authorities to take a look at a Danny Hylton elbow that overshadowed a tightly-contested draw with Luton.
Ferguson was in no doubt whatsoever that Hylton had deliberately elbowed John Marquis in the face.
A similar offence by Rochdale’s Calvin Andrew in November was met with a 12-match ban following a video review – later reduced to nine on appeal.
At the time of writing no footage of the incident was available, but if Ferguson’s version of events is confirmed, a similar suspension could be heading Hylton’s way.
Ferguson said: “I thought we could have got more protection from the referee.
“Hylton is a very good centre forward and I don’t normally speak about certain things like that in the opposition team, but his elbow on John Marquis is an absolute disgrace. How he’s not sent off – they’ve got to look at it. He shouldn’t be on the pitch.
“I’m disgusted with it. He’s elbowed him straight in the face. He’s not looked at the ball. It’s got to be looked at. It’s a terrible thing to do. He looked at him, waited for him, and bang – elbowed him.”
Despite that off-the-ball incident, Ferguson was pleased to see his side respond to their midweek
defeat to Carlisle by coming from behind to maintain their unbeaten home record against a fellow promotion contender.
Alfie May came off the bench to score his first goal at Football League level ten minutes from time after Jordan Cook had put Luton ahead earlier in the second half.
Ferguson said: “Yet again after a game when we’ve lost, we’ve made sure we’ve not lost the next one. I thought we showed real guts to come back from 1-0 down.
“Physically we matched them and in the first half we were the better team. At that point you’re thinking ‘right, we need to really dig in here to get something out of it’. “But young Alfie’s come on, got his chance, taken it, he was really sharp and he was very good when he came on.” Doncaster had tried to exploit the flanks in the early going, with Tommy Rowe putting a header over the bar at the back post just two minutes into the game from Matty Blair’s cross. And Tommy Rowe had an 11th-minute shot deflected just past the post after cutting inside. Luton’s best chance of the half went unconverted as Isaac Vassell found the angle just too narrow to find the open goal after getting around Rovers keeper Ian Lawlor.
Andy Williams tried to put a sumptuous curler past Matt Macey early in the second half, but the ball dropped agonisingly wide of the far post.
Three minutes later the Hatters were ahead, with Vassell playing in Cook to put an unstoppable finish into the bottom corner.
It looked like Luton’s solid defence would hold, but May had other ideas, getting onto a similar through ball from Conor Grant and slipping it past Macey.
Luton boss Nathan Jones said: “I’m really proud of my team: I thought we were excellent, I really did. We came here with a gameplan.
“I thought we deserved to win the game. The referee’s made one mistake all day and it was the goal because it’s a foul on Jordan Cook.
“I didn’t envisage them scoring, I couldn’t see them scoring.
“There were some big performances all over.
“The opposition are top of the league and I loved how we went about our work.
“I’m really disappointed because three points would have been a real big statement here and we deserved the three points.”