Gideon Kodua stole an unlikely point for Luton at Leyton Orient with yet more last-gasp heroics after a worryingly woeful performance.
His fifth goal of the season came in the sixth minute of injury time at Brisbane Road, at which point Town had failed to register a single shot on target, while captain Kal Naismith’s gaffe gifted Orient an opener.
Kodua’s four previous strikes had all come after his introduction from the bench, earning him something of a super sub tag, but though the West Ham loanee started in his native east London, he delivered yet another late show.
“I love Gids. He’s got personality. He’s got character,” Town boss Jack Wilshere told the BBC, adding: “He gave the ball away a few times. But he’s the one who’s trying. He’s the one who, until Jordan came on, looks like he’s going to be the one to give us something. Credit to him because he’s a young, he’s still learning the game, still developing. But he’s got something different, a little bit of character I like.”
The Hatters barely even started playing until the 90th minute and that was largely down to Jordan Clark, who came on in the 70th minute for his first appearance in more than a month out injured.
But when he hit the post, Town looked odds on for a seventh blank of the season. And against a side that had conceded the second highest number of goals in the division, that output was as rank as they come.
Orient weren’t much better but they made the most of the an error five minutes into the second half by last man Naismith when Dom Ballard picked the Luton skipper’s pocket and unselfishly rolled to Theo Archibald to tap into an empty net.
It was one of a number of glaring errors the Scot made after a first half where he whacked crossfield passes out of play and misplaced passes with regularity, though the Hatters were all at it with unforced errors and poor decision-making.
Not least, early on, when one of Naismith’s raking balls found its intended target of Jacob Brown, but rather than roll along the turf in the six-yard area to Jerry Yates, the forward clipped the ball behind the frontman and the golden chance went begging with the goal at his mercy. All three Hatters eventually made way for substitutes and, for once, Kodua was not one of the five used.
But it was only once normal time was up, and a remarkable 10 minutes were added on, that the Hatters woke up, and from a Liam Walsh corner, the man of the moment headed in at the back post.
“I thought we never took control of the game,” said Wilshere, who went into the away end to speak with frustrated travelling Town fans afterwards. “I think it was I think it was one of them nights. Too many technical errors, too many times we gave the ball away and then you lose your rhythm, you lose your flow. They build momentum and then they then get a goal in the second half. And it’s difficult.
“I thought we dug in. Of course, it’s a lot easier when a team goes 1-0 up and then they just want to protect the goal and they don’t want to play anymore. It becomes easier. [It’s a] disappointing night. But, again, credit to the boys that they they dug in again and it’s nice to score a set piece as well.”
A point was certainly nothing that Luton deserved… but they’ll take it.
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