news-engine

Luton skipper felt he was 'scapegoated' by new EFL leniency rules at Reading Naismith thought he was clearly fouled for Royals’ third goal Hatters captain Kal Naismith admitted that although he is actually a fan of the new level of leniency instructed to be shown by referees this season, he thought he was left ‘scapegoated’ by one such incident during yesterday’s amazing 4-3 win at Reading. The EFL drafted a number of rule changes ahead of the 2026-27 campaign in a bid to tackle the tempo being continually disrupted and help make the game quicker, including ways to halt goalkeepers going down with fake injuries, plus preventing time-wasting at throw-ins and goal kicks, with another one, a higher threshold for penalising physical challenges. Naismith then fell on the wrong side of the latter straight away as with 38 minutes of the contest gone at the Madejski Stadium, his side 2-1 down having led through Jake Richards’ early strike, a crossfield ball over to Luton’s left saw Naismith get to it ahead of attacker Tyreece Lisbie, only to then fall to the floor, which with the naked eye looked fairly theatrical, only for replays to show a clear two hands in the back from the summer signing from Colchester United. Unfortunately for the Scotsman, there was no whistle blown by referee Leigh Doughty, who had a strange game all afternoon, letting a lot of things go and then punishing the exact same offence afterwards, as he allowed play to continue, as did his assistant. It meant Lisbie could race away on the right and pick out the unmarked Jack Marriott to complete his quickfire hat-trick, with Naismith remonstrating unsuccessfully with the officials afterwards, boss Jack Wilshere booked for his reaction to the goal too. Thankfully it didn’t hinder the Hatters, rather add to the spectacle, as the visitors were able to hit back with three goals in the second period to triumph 4-3, Gideon Kodua with a dramatic stoppage time winner. However, Naismith, who knows Town will need to get a trip with the new rules quickly, felt the goal definitely should have been disallowed, saying: “I’m disappointed to be honest. "I felt I was in a good position, ran back, go to header it, got pushed under it so I can’t physically header it and then the referee’s saying they’ve put the threshold up this season, so first game I guess they’ve got to put it into play. I didn’t think it would be that harsh, but they do this a lot. They say they’re going to implement something and in the first game they really implement it to lay a marker down. I felt I was a little bit scapegoated in that there, it was almost like, ‘let’s make an example of this one.’ "People are going in too soft, which is fair enough, they’re changing it, being a referee is a hard job, but we need to then learn. Izzy (Jones) had one in the second half where he sort of protected it, a bit of contact, went over, usually always a foul, but doesn’t get given, so we spoke to each other as a back-line and said ‘just clear our lines.’ We’ve got to learn and adapt to whatever they’re going to do, so that’s fine, that’s on us.” Luton chief Wilshere also sided with his captain, believing there had been a obvious foul committed by the Reading winger, as he stated: “I understand the word leniency, I’m all for that. I played in an era where you could tackle a little bit more and we want that. I thought you saw that really well in the World Cup, however, I think a push is a push. If you’ve got two hands up and you push someone in the back, it’s really hard then for the player to stay on his feet, so I’ll ask questions of them and we’ll see what happens next week.” Despite falling on the wrong side this time, Naismith declared he was a supporter of the new regulations put in place, although does feel they might need to be slightly refined to be a success, adding: “I love it. I’m a defender, I hate the game being stop-start, so I absolutely love it. Where I don’t love it and this is going to sound biased as it’s on me, but as a professional footballer that’s 85kg plus, when you’re running at pace, if you get any contact on your back, that’s unfair. "I can’t physically be stronger in that scenario to stay up so it gives an unfair advantage. If it’s like two people colliding, or shoulder to shoulder, or two big tackles or two big headers when there’s contact after, I love all that. When it might not look like a big collision, but you can knock a player off balance if he’s running at pace, it doesn’t become a fair duel then. In my eyes, that wasn’t a fair duel, in my eyes, but people might think otherwise that I need to be stronger, fair enough, that’s football.”