" Omer Riza criticises 'one sided' referee "

Interim boss Omer Riza expressed his disappointment after Cardiff City's six-game unbeaten run came to an end at Luton Town and claimed the refereeing in the match was "one-sided".

Jacob Brown's header was enough to separate the two sides in what was a game of little quality from both teams. However Cardiff did appear to get away with a penalty appeal when Calum Chambers looked to have handled the ball following Carlton Morris's cross.

And Riza seemed equally disappointed by his side's lack of quality in the final third and referee Matt Donohue's decision-making throughout the match.

"I'm disappointed," Riza said after the defeat. "We knew what we were coming into tonight and I thought we dealt with it predominantly well. They caused us a few problems. But in possession we created a few really good moments but at times we needed to be a little bit cleaner, technically, for that final pass or opportunity.

"We let ourselves down with our quality, then got done with a set play from the corner. It's a good corner but we need to deal with it better.

"That one moment has been really costly. I wasn't too happy with the officiating today if I'm honest with you. I thought it was really one-sided. A lot of things given to them that wasn't given to us. I couldn't understand it at times and asked the question at half time. To come to a place like this and not to be given things that we should have, that's a bit disgruntling, but well done to Luton."

Riza held talks with the owners ahead of last weekend's 2-1 win over Norwich City, but once again batted away any questions on his future, insisting only the board would be able to answer them.

"This is not about me, it's about the team and the club," he added. "A defeat doesn't mean all the work has been undone. The fans have been great today and supported the boys brilliantly. It's just a shame we couldn't have got at least a point out of today, then it would have been a good day."

Cardiff's attack struggled to create too many meaningful opportunities at Kenilworth Road, with the likes of Anwar El Ghazi and Ollie Tanner struggling to impact the game out wide.

But Riza is optimistic that Cardiff can head into the international break in positive fashion, with a game against Blackburn Rovers looming on Saturday lunchtime. And the interim boss hopes to have Alex Robertson, who has missed the last two matches, available for the tie.

"He has come through the injury well and he will hopefully be training through the rest of this week and then ready to go on Saturday," Riza said of the Australia international. "He will be ready to be in the squad (for Blackburn). With his previous injury, it was important not to rush him back."

While I agree that the referee didn't have a great game, I don't think it's fair to say he was "one sided".

Luton had a stonewall penalty turned down in the first half.

Won't be surprised if Riza gets fined for that comment.

Over all Luton deserved their win, once you start blaming Refs, I worry for us.

We hardly had a shot on goal

I thought the ref was inconsistent for both teams, just admit we were not good enough and move on to the next one!

While I agree that the referee didn't have a great game, I don't think it's fair to say he was "one sided".

Luton had a stonewall penalty turned down in the first half.

Won't be surprised if Riza gets fined for that comment.

Agree Ned - That was a pen that the ref missed .

They bullied us all over the pitch and should’ve won by more.
Disappointing performance.
Apart from missing Robertson, you’d have to think a fit Ralls would’ve offered more than Siopis.

Clutching at straws

If he thinks that ref was biased he’s in for a big shock when we actually have a biased ref. Seen many over the years and that wasn’t one.

To be fair to Riza the ref was diabolical and you always notice decisions that go against you more than the other way. He also admitted that Luton deserved to win. And said our performance wasn’t good enough.

I posted in the match thread that the ref was a little strange, they played him better, but we go down very easily for a Cardiff City team. Like it or not, we are seen as a physical team so are Luton, so he let it go. Looks like you need to go for the full flop rather than the elongated fall, stumble and moan to the ref

Think his critism of ref is more to do with the stop start to game seemed like every time they went down it was foul probably frustrated with way game went? He did praise their tactical acumen of stopping us playing but think anwick was partially to blame with his "stop look at me ive got ball attitude" it really slowed our game to much which allowed Luton to implement their tactics better...

Think his critism of ref is more to do with the stop start to game seemed like every time they went down it was foul probably frustrated with way game went? He did praise their tactical acumen of stopping us from playing but think anwick was partially to blame with his "stop look at me ive got ball attitude" it really slowed our game to much which allowed Luton to implement their tactics better...

I could not agree more with your Alnwick comment it was like going back to the Bulut games, slow, slow, stop, stop, slow.
I was also disappointed with his substitutions Bagan should have come on instead of El Ghazi, moving O'Dowda to the wing,
with Daland replacing Siopis.

Think his critism of ref is more to do with the stop start to game seemed like every time they went down it was foul probably frustrated with way game went? He did praise their tactical acumen of stopping us from playing but think anwick was partially to blame with his "stop look at me ive got ball attitude" it really slowed our game to much which allowed Luton to implement their tactics better...

I could not agree more with your Alnwick comment it was like going back to the Bulut games, slow, slow, stop, stop, slow.
I was also disappointed with his substitutions Bagan should have come on instead of El Ghazi, moving O'Dowda to the wing,
with Daland replacing Siopis.

He's been doing it for awhile now ... I'm all for no risk taking at back but think about it when team plays way Luton did 5 or 10 seconds delay how far can a player press in that time? It's when a defender is free and he stops stands there and waits is the problem.. yes subs didn't really change anything only miete did anything worthwhile but pointless when no one wanted to put ball in box ! Hopefully Saturday b different

I said during the game that the ref was all over the place with his decisions, just all around very poor.

He was crap but we benefited more with the two hand balls and neither penalty was given.

I said during the game that the ref was all over the place with his decisions, just all around very poor.

Going this is what riza was unhappy with but he hasn't conveyed it quite right.... his stop start of game suited Luton more than us plus appeared to favour them..riza just frustrated more ghan anything else.