It’s beginning to feel like deja vu against the big teams at Kenilworth Road as late heartbreak this time left Luton boss Rob Edwards the “angriest” he’s been after Lucas Digne bagged an 89th minute winner for Aston Villa.
Just as they had against Liverpool and Arsenal, Town took it to a top four team but suffered a late sting.
“It’s probably the angriest I’ve been today,” said Edwards, adding: “Not half time, everyone gets fixated on goals and scorelines, the performance was decent in the first half, we conceded from a corner, from a quick turn over in transition and we conceded from a quick free kick.
“It’s hard to get behind Aston Villa, they’re a team fighting for Champions League, what are we expected to be, 2-0 up against Villa? I don’t know.
“There was lots to like about the performance in the first half, we were a lot more solid than against City, it’s just difficult to get behind them, they’re so well organised, it’s difficult to get around them, hard to create chances, so just because we were 2-0 down, there wasn’t loads wrong.”
But it was the third time on the spin that Luton had conceded at least twice in the first half and they failed to register a shot on target, while Amari’i Bell was to Town’s lengthening injury list.
After that gamble backfired in the seventh minute Alfie Doughty was drafted in as a makeshift centre half and his side couldn’t get any rhythm going.
Which made it more remarkable the turnaround in the second period that put them so close to a famous point after an Ollie Watkins-inspired 2-0 half time lead.
Teden Mengi lost Watkins at a corner and the England hopeful headed home unchallenged and then the striker caught Town napping again to fire a second, with VAR eventually ruling that Chiedozie Ogbene had just played him onside.
Quiet befell Kenilworth Road and nothing could’ve prepared the home fansfor what was to come.
It must have been a hell of a half time team talk from Edwards, but the Hatters emerged from the dressing room reinvigorated.
The manager said: “We shifted one or two little bits, we asked them to up the intensity more because it doesn’t matter now, we’re 2-0 down, the games done, so we might as well leave it all out there as we always do.
“(We) found a way to get back into the game with loads of quality, loads of endeavour, loads of passion and heart, I thought the crowd were brilliant and it hurts to concede in the way that we did late on.
“So much to like about how we played against a brilliant team, but we’ve done that before.”
With Issa Kaboré at the fulcrum, flying down the right flank, it was full throttle football and Villa struggled to cope.
Chong halved the deficit after a spot of penalty box pinball which at first saw Matty Cash deny Reece Burke in stunning fashion on the goal-line before Morris nodded into the path of the goalscorer.
Morris then levelled as he watched Doughty’s deep free-kick like a hawk, finding a composed finish at the back stick.
Kenilworth Road shook and the captain almost had an identical third, but the offside flag raised as he dragged his shot.
There looked only one winner and Morris thought he’d got it when he rose highest to head on target but straight at World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez.
A draw would’ve been the least they deserved but even that evaded them.
Having barely seen the whites of Thomas Kaminski’s eyes – after a string of fine first half saves – Villa provided the sting in the tale.
Moussa Diaby whipped in a rare cross and Kabore, so electrifying in attack, didn’t keep tabs of Digne and he headed home.
“I’ll struggle to sleep tonight,” said Edwards, adding: “But I’ll sleep better when I know we’ve performed well, given our fans something to shout about and entertained them, and where our fans can see that we’ve given everything.
“I want us to be good to watch, I want us to score goals, we’re doing all those things, but we need to try and shut teams out and today, there’s a few basic things that we got wrong and we didn’t shut them out.”
