Andre Ayew broke Luton Town hearts as his winner in the last 10 minutes earned Swansea City the victory, after a spirited defensive display, led by the impressive Matty Pearson, ended with them having little to show for their efforts.
The first half was a largely quiet affair with both teams comfortable in possession but struggling to find the killer pass, although the Swans looked to take the lead in injury time when centre forward Borja Baston looped an overhead kick goalwards, but thankfully it fell just wide of the post.
Despite seeing a lot of the ball in the opening 45 minutes, the Town’s best effort came from Andrew Shinnie from 25 yards, his well-hit shot helped over the bar by Woodman in the Swans’ goal.
At the other end Swansea enjoyed the odd decent moment through the energetic full-back Connor Roberts, who twice found space on the edge of the home box only to shoot tamely at the recalled Simon Sluga, in for James Shea who missed out with a concussion. Ayew had an effort which he should have done better with rather than hit the side netting.
The Welsh outfit came on strong in the second stanza and were piling on the pressure around the hour mark. Town were indebted to Sluga to paw away a header from Ayew, while George Byers twice fired over from the edge of the box as Town became camped in their own box.
As the game began to open up it was Luton’s turn to force the play, and they were almost in front after a wonderful ball from Shinnie sent Harry Cornick through, he rounded the keeper before pulling back for George Moncur to shoot, but his effort was cleared off the line.
Moments later a wonderful cross from James Collins picked out Shinnie at the back post, but he could only head over.
Town had to survive a scare when Byers looked to draw a challenge out of Pearson, but the referee saw through his dive, much to the relief of the fans in the Oak Road who were adjacent to the incident.
Just as it looked like Luton had weathered the storm, Jay Fulton’s cross from the bylne looped up off Ryan Tunnicliffe and dropped perfectly for Ghana international Ayew to send the Swans’ fans home happy and consign the Hatters to a third straight defeat.
