Rob Edwards saluted his players never-say-die attitude as they came from 2-0 down at Nottingham Forest to earn a memorable point with two late goals from Chiedozie Ogbene and Elijah Adebayo.
The latter came in the second minute of eight added on at the end from the striker that had been dropped to the bench, but was a group of Hatters that led the revival after coming off the bench.
Andros Townsend was included in that as he was credited with the assist for Ogbene’s deficit cutter – a fine finish for his first for the club – while Ross Barkley arguably put in his best performance for the club.
And for Adebayo, it was the best way to silence the racists that had reared their ugly heads after his miss against Tottenham just before the international break.
But at 76 minutes when Chris Wood netted his second for Forest, the game looked dead, and so the finale will give this Hatters team so much heart, not that they lack that in any shape or form. But results such as this, not only feel like a win, but they can be transformative for seasons.
That remains to be seen, though the point kept Town out of the Premier League’s bottom three, and boss Edwards said afterwards: “We’ve got an amazing group and these lads never, ever quit. I always say it, if our fans are giving us a standing ovation at the end of the game then we’ve done something right, and they were today.
“We’re going to lose games, we know that, but there’s ways to lose and we fight all the way to the end. We finish games strongly and we’ve done that consistently now throughout this season. Even at Brighton in the first game, we were finishing strong but then made a mistake and it was difficult.
“So there’s lots of good stuff there that we can fall back on, but I want more, I really do. I want more of this group. They’ve shown now that we can compete at this level. I want to keep driving them and pushing them and that’s what we’ll do because there’s more from them to come, there really is.”
Asked by the BBC if that comeback felt like a win, Edwards said: “There are elements of it that do. It’s great to get something from the game. It’s a really difficult place to come. I think it’s 19 league games now and only two defeats for them after today. That’s half a league season and they’ve only lost twice here, so it shows how difficult a place it is to come.
“I’m really pleased with the lads spirit, the togetherness and the whole group. The impact the substitutions made was key and that was vital for us.
“I go home very, very happy but there’s always a but. We’ve still got areas to work on and learn from but that will always be the case.”
After making it to half time all square, Town conceded quickly with a soft goal that the defence didn’t deal with when they had the numbers to, while Woods second goal was what he does best and would undoubtedly have been highlighted in Town’s preparations.
“It was really frustrating, especially the timing of the first one,” said Edwards, adding: “It’s something we’ve got to look at and talk about. I’m really disappointed with that. The second one is hard to stop the cross when he checks back inside. Wood has earned a very good career of attacking balls and getting those little glancing headers in the box. We’ve got to do better, no doubt about it.
“But the first one disappointed me because we had the numbers there to be able to deal with it and they didn’t”
Edwards added: “That quality, that spirit, the work, the running, the fight we showed to get back in it was excellent. And (to score) in front of our fans was great as well, it was really good to celebrate together with them.”
Adebayo’s leveller was his second Premier League goal, and while the celebrations were cruelly cut short after 64 seconds against Burnley, this one earned Town a deserved share of the spoils and showed a striker not short of confidence.
He chested down Tom Lockyer’s long ball and blasted confidently home and Edwards said: “It was a brilliant goal and he was disappointed not to start the game, but there’s going to be lads that are disappointed. What I want are for lads to react the right way and go and show me they want to start in the next one and make an impact. I thought every single one of them did that today.”
The point made it four from Luton’s last two games on their travels and Edwards said: “We’re starting to get it going, starting to build a bit of rhythm and we just need everyone to stay onboard with it. We need the supporters to keep with it. We’ll have some tough times, I keep saying it, but we’ll have some really good times as well and tonight’s a good time.”
