As sickening defeats go, this was up there with the worst for Luton in the Premier League as a Jacob Bruun Larsen stunner silenced Kenilworth Road 65 bewildering seconds after a roof-raising equaliser from Elijah Adebayo that looked to be turning the tide Town’s way.
After a dominant second half in which finishing let Town down, the substitute striker swivelled on a Reece Burke knockdown to cancel out Lyle Foster’s opener.
With six minutes remaining, plus a sizeable amount of time added on for a Clarets side that time-wasted throughout, the home faithful were sizzling with the possibilities after a first win in the division at Everton on Saturday.
Manager Rob Edwards was gesticulating wildly to his players and the crowd to get ready to roar his men on for a grandstand finale. But he and they had barely sat back down in the new seats, and a no Town player had touched the ball, when the visiting Dane let fly and found the top corner. You could hear a pin drop inside the Old Girl.
There was simply no way back. All momentum and passion had been murdered by Larsen’s left boot.
Heads hung low at the final whistle like they had not before in any of Luton’s four top-flight defeats. How cruel this game can be.
Manager Rob Edwards said: “Obviously, I’m really disappointed with the result and we all would be. We’re down in there (dressing room), pretty flat and hurting because of the manner of it and the timing of it.
“I’ve been trying to remove my emotion of losing the game and obviously in that way.
“There was lots there that was good. Loads.”
But after the highs of Everton and their first win of the season, it was back to getting ruthlessly punished for lapses of concentration.
It took just two passes through the heart of the Hatters for Sander Berge – the visitors’ standout man – to slide in Foster, courtesy of a fortunate nick off Tom Lockyer’s boot. But the Welshman was never going to win in a foot race and the striker cooly slotted to put Burnley in front in the dying embers of the first half where the Clarets’ quality paid off.
Edwards added: “We adjusted one or two things in the second half. I thought we pretty much completely dominated the second half. We’ve had 15 shots inside the box tonight and only scored the one.
“That’s proving the most difficult thing for us at the moment. We pushed, we’ve had set-pieces, we’ve gone forward with numbers, we were brave, we were aggressive and we didn’t allow them any control, which is what they want. But, ultimately, we’ve come away with nothing and that hurts tonight.”
Carlton Morris, who was otherwise excellent in leading the line, squandered a free header, nodded another just over, as did Jacob Brown.
Even when the latter did find the target, Josh Cullen headed off the line.
Morris was also denied a clear penalty when he nipped in ahead of Jordan Beyer’s lunge. But referee Peter Banks was unmoved and the much-criticised VAR was not even called into action.
It’s a bonkers game sometimes, and no more so than 65 seconds at the end of the game.
