Three injury time minutes. That’s how close Luton came to a famous win to end a 31-year wait against Liverpool only for Tahith Chong’s opener to be cancelled out by a late injury time Luis Diaz leveller.
The Columbian’s bravery in coming off the bench while the hunt goes on in his homeland for his kidnapped father is a story in itself. Football is hardly important when placed against the unimaginable worry the forward must be feeling.
But on the pitch, under the Kenilworth Road lights, for the 94 minutes prior to his header, the Hatters were exemplary.
Yes, Luton had to ride their luck. It’s almost a given against the very top teams, and Thomas Kaminski’s string of saves plus a glaring point-blank miss from Darwin Nunez, among a plethora of shots, can be filed firmly under that heading.
“My overriding feeling is pride,” said boss Rob Edwards afterwards, adding: “We’re all winners, we’re all ambitious, we want to win games of football, and when you’re 1-0 up in the 94th minute against Liverpool, of course we want to win the game.
“Overall, maybe they’d feel a bit hard done by if we’d have won that game.
“They’re going to be the dominant team, we know that, but we had a real plan, the players committed to it and we got close.
“So my overriding feeling is pride not disappointment tonight, there’s a bit of not if and if only, but the players gave absolutely everything.
“They’re Liverpool Football Club, that’s why they are who they are, they found a way to get a result from a difficult situation.”
But with their 26 per cent possession, Town were thrillingly positive and it was from a lightning counter that Chong bagged his first for the club.
Ross Barkley was the orchestrator, with undoubtedly his best performance for Luton, contributing to a growing sense that this club are starting to get the best from him.
His skill and power saw him burst from his own box, drawing Liverpool players to him and then taking them out of the game with a through-ball to Issa Kaboré.
The Burkina Faso international – in arguably his best outing for the club too – found an inch-perfect cross and Chong, busting a gut, slid it in.
Kenilworth Road erupted once and then again after a VAR check for a Reds penalty came to nothing.
The home side deserved it and the din alone suggest the home faithful believed that three points were heading their way.
“It was a great feeling,” said Edwards of the goal, adding: “It was a brilliant goal, those are moments that we’re going to get against teams like that, the counter-attacking moments.
“We’re not going to get loads of control in their final third, so it was really good that the players were clinical, it was something we’ve been talking about for the last few weeks.”
Victory wasn’t to be, but while they can feel crestfallen tonight at not dragging themselves over the line, there was so much to be positive about. And, like Edwards, his overriding emotion will be shared about the town.
Liverpool are, after all, fully stocked with world-class talent and five minutes into eight added on, they spared their blushes.
But Luton have been showing the Premier League that they are not here to make up the numbers for a season and slink back to the Championship.
And once wounds have healed over conceding the equaliser, Town can take this performance as yet another example that they belong in this division, not least because it dragged them out of the bottom three on goal difference.
Those of a Hatters persuasion know this already and now, with the glare of the world on them in this televised clash, they’ve shown people not from this parish that they can play. And that will stand them in very good stead against anyone in this division.
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