For Rovers, this was the quintessential afternoon of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Starting with the good, there were two finely-worked goals, first finished off by Tyrhys Dolan and then by Harry Pickering within four minutes of each other.

The bad was the failure to kill off the game with late chances of their own and succumbing to the kind of match Luton wanted it to become.

The ugly was undoubtedly the farcical nature of how the game was able to pass with the players seemingly taking matters into their own hands, which only further stirred up the animosity that bubbled over from the moment Darragh Lenihan lunged into a challenge on Allan Campbell.

The Rovers captain escaped with a yellow card, fortunately so, the Luton midfielder unable to continue.

That lit the blue touch paper, managers Mowbray and Jones exchanging their views on the incident, and from that moment on, the scene was set.

A farcical game ended with nine yellow card cards, countless coming-togethers, and somehow with 22 players finishing the game. One person that didn't was referee Oliver Langford himself, limping off moments after five additional minutes were played.

That delay saw the game go beyond 98 minutes, by which point substitute Luke Berry had scored his second of the afternoon. Luton were jubilant, Rovers were crestfallen, two points slipping through their fingers.

A clear directive from the referee authorities has clearly been on allowing games to flow and not clamping down with such vigour on any moments of physicality.

Lenihan overstepped that, and should have seen red for an over the top challenge right infront of the dug-outs, though under the totting up procedures, Luton did well to finish with 11 men themselves.

The officiating left the players and crowd incensed, and that only added to the grievance as one baffling decision followed another.

Between the needle and intense atmosphere, the were moments in which a football match did break out, Rovers putting together two fine moves to put them deservedly 2-0 up at the break.

Berry scored the first of two close range finishes with 17 minutes of normal time to go, his second coming in the eighth additional minute, as Rovers were made to pay for not seeing the game out.

That remains one of the biggest areas to improve for this side.

Time and again they get themselves into winning positions without able to see them over the line with the comfort they could.

With a two-goal lead heading into the final quarter, it should have been done and dusted, and would have been with more composure.

Even by the time Luton pulled one back, Rovers lacked the clinical edge to take advantage of the gilt-edged opportunities that came their way, as did the indecision on whether to go for the kill and a third goal, or run down the clock.

Rovers were tiring and requiring fresh legs, Jacob Davenport ready to come on as Berry scored the first of his two goals, while Mowbray tried to shut up shop for the closing stages by sending on Tyler Magloire and switching to a back three.

Adding an extra defensively and looking to hold on to what they have appears to be Rovers’ go-to mode for trying to see out results, but Magloire didn’t look comfortable on the left side of the defence, and retreating deep, it gave Luton the incentive to push for an equaliser to the death.

Decision-making on and off the pitch could have been smarter.

Operating with a small squad, and eight first-team players unavailable, Rovers did tire as the second half wore on and that saw them unable to take advantage of the position they had worked themselves into.

That came courtesy of Dolan’s opener, 27 minutes in, a move which started in their left back area and was finished off by the attacker after one excellent John Buckley pass and a Ryan Nyambe cut-back.

Where Nyambe claimed an assist fellow full back Harry Pickering went one better, claiming a Ben Brereton pass to arrow a shot across Simon Sluga and into the far corner.

Chances had been at a premium by that point, and continued to be up until Brereton’s second half shot on the turn came back off the post.

That was after a start to the second half that saw five players carded in the five minutes after the re-start, including Dolan for simulation and Brereton and goalkeeper Sluga following a coming together.

It felt at times that Rovers got a little too drawn into the needle of the game and stopped playing the game they needed to that would surely have seen them over the finish line with ease.

Cameron Jerome, booked for cynically taking out Lenihan when challenging for a high ball, had a goal chalked off for a push on Daniel Ayala.

But Luton weren’t to be denied, Berry squeezing the ball over the line from a Pelly Ruddock-Mpanzu cross before forcing it home in injury time as the visitors kept the ball alive in the box.

Moments before Brereton had raced through, only to be denied by Sluga, while Gallagher’s follow-up was somehow blocked.

The main talking point post-match was understandably, and predictably, about the officials and the standard continues to fall below what is expected.

Rovers must too be accepting of their faults in throwing away a two-goal lead, and the inquest as to how it transpired was carried out for half an hour in the immediate aftermath of the game.

Mowbray said there was an honesty and frankness to those discussions, the hope being that there will lessons learned and Rovers will be able to see games out much better in the future.

The same improvements after required of the officiating, but Rovers can’t hide behind those failings for the way the game slipped out of their grasp.

The positives were the two goals scored, and the battling qualities displayed, but they should have been rewarded with a third win of the campaign.  That wait goes on, as does one for a clean sheet, now stretching 16 games.