Tony Mowbray said the 2-2 draw with Luton Town descended into a ‘farce’ but said his side had more than enough chances to secure all three points.

Rovers led 2-0 courtesy of first half goals by Tyrhys Dolan and Harry Pickering but were made to settle for a point after Luke Berry came off the bench to score twice, including a 98th minute equaliser.

A heated match saw nine players booked, with Mowbray feeling referee Oliver Langford lost control of the game and too many challenges went unpunished.

The Rovers boss conceded that a first half challenge from Darragh Lenihan would have resulted in a red card were it to have been made last season, but feels the officials aren’t being helped a new directive to let the game flow more.

He said: “We’re left frustrated and disappointed, I think we did more than enough to win the football match.

“Let me give them some credit, I prepared our team this week for playing against a 100 per cent committed football team who fight for everything.

“They never give in, they never stopped. We spoke at half time about keeping a clean sheet and winning the football match, we hit the inside of the post and if it went to 3-0 hopefully that would have been put to death.

“At the end, how Brereton and Gallagher didn’t score when running through….

“The reality is that I sat there for the whole game pretty proud and if I was a Blackburn Rovers fan I’d have been proud that the young team out there was fighting for every ball.

“Unfortunately the officials made a farce of the game and if I was the guy who refereed that match I’d be going home and having a look at it and seeing what I got right and what I got wrong.

“I don’t think they’re helped by the authorities. Every tackle last year when someone fell to the ground was a foul and a booking and yet sometimes today, body wrestling out there and he was playing on.

“I don’t think he knew what he was doing to be honest. I’m vulnerable to criticising the referee because is it sour grapes? Well I’m hurting, the team are hurting, it’s really disappointing, we should have won that football match. The points are gone, but there is no accountability from the officials. I think it was really, really poor, but credit to Luton they kept going and got their rewards.

“We’ve spent half an hour in the dressing room with the team going through the goals on the TV, there was a lot of honesty. Were we too deep? Were the strikers not stopping the crosses coming into the box? There was a lot of honesty. We’ll brush ourselves down, we’re in tomorrow, and we’ll prepare for Hull on Tuesday and try and get three points in the next game.”

Sam Gallagher and Ben Brereton both missed chances to make the game safe, and Mowbray admits the game should have been put of Luton’s reach before it reached the closing seconds when Berry equalised.

Yet it was the performance of the officials that dominated Mowbray’s thoughts, and those of opposite number Nathan Jones.

He added: “The officials lost the plot, don’t skirt around it. I stand there and watch it, I can see the guys eyes glazed over, the fourth official doesn’t know what to say, he’s embarrassed, and then he ends up going on himself.

“I don’t think the game changed. Did they want it more than us? No.  But they’re a physical team and if you look at our midfield players compared to their midfield players, we fought our weight and stood our ground and it was an extremely competitive football match, you expect the guy in the middle to look after the players and do his job and I’m not sure he did or knew what he was doing.

“I am sure Nathan (Jones) has been in here complaining about Lenihan’s tackle, he’s been moaning enough to me about it. I was 10 yards away from it, I watched it live, Lenihan makes full contact with the ball, his foot rolls over the top of it and catches the lad.

“Last year, 100 per cent that’s a red card, this year I don’t think officials know what they’re doing and how strong or lenient to be.

“They’ve obviously had a big meeting and decided that when a player falls over or is tackled, let it run, let the game flow, because a lot of people want to see the game flow.

“They’re stuck in this little zone. Jurgen Klopp is saying ‘protect my players’, they haven’t got the balance right. Today was going to be that game because I prepared my team that if we were going to get beat today then I didn’t come in here and you say to me ‘they wanted it more than you’.

“I don’t think that was the case, I thought we scrapped and fought for everything and if you’re John Buckley or Joe Rothwell, you aren’t a physical animal, you’re a footballer but you have to fight and compete when someone is asking questions of you and that’s what I thought they did pretty well.

“We’re frustrated with a point instead of three but if you want to really break it down, we should have taken our chances when they came and that’s the reality. The game should’ve been finished.”