Carlton Morris bagged an 11-minute brace to rescue Luton against Sheffield Wednesday and secure a pressure relieving first home win of the season.
For 77 desperate minutes it looked like Luton were going to make a sorry piece of history by losing their first three homes games of a season for the first time ever. But how things can change quickly.
Boss Rob Edwards said: “I know that it wasn’t far from a perfect performance. The last two haven’t been, but we’ve won. And really, we needed that at the moment, at this stage, just to try and build some momentum and belief and confidence again because it’s been a tough period.”
That had threatened to continue when Barry Bannon was given the freedom of Kenilworth Road to batter a volley past Thomas Kaminski in the 52nd minute, even if until that point, had largely been dominated by a woefully inept refereeing performance from Gavin Ward.
But the ire aimed at the man in the middle somewhat papered over a miserable Town showing, but the official – who was given a sarcastic 30-second standing ovation when a rare whistle went in favour of the hosts – then judged that Di’Shon Bernard had handballed Mark McGuinness’ header on the goal-line, pointed to the penalty spot and sent the Owl off.
The defender took an age to leave the pitch, but Morris kept cool and sent England Under-20 keeper James Beadle the wrong way.
The debate may rage over whether it was a handball at all, but there was no question, the game changed dramatically from there.
There was a case to say, the swing in Town’s favour had begun with a triple substitution after Wednesday’s opener. On came Morris, Zack Nelson and Tom Krauß for his debut, and what an introduction the German made. Fan favourite status beckons for the man on loan from Mainz, if he hadn’t earned it already by flying into tackles, raking purposeful passes, celebrating throw-in calls and riling up the crowd.
But, the plaudits will overwhelmingly go to his captain. Having not notched this term and forced to start the last two games on the bench, Morris followed his leveller with a virtual tap-in with two minutes of normal time remaining.
Again, with bodies in the box, Jordan Clark’s shot squirmed its way to Morris and he could not miss. The noise was akin to a 30-yard screamer, such was the relief around Kenilworth Road.
Edwards said: “We shot ourselves in the foot with the goal that we conceded. And then it’s hard because then something has gone against us again and we need to try and wrestle back some momentum.
“There’s no doubt then, we were pushing we were trying, forced our way somehow. When the header was going in from Macca, before he (Bernard) stuck his arm out and it’s hit there, hasn’t it?
“So, before that it was going in anyway, so that’s the goal, we got back in the game and and then along with that and the red card and everything else, I thought the impact that the subs made was was great.
“And that’s what we want. We’ve got a squad for a reason. It’s difficult to leave certain people out, but then when you get reactions like that, it’s amazing.”
It’s a funny old game. The last time these two sides met in Luton, the Hatters came from two goals down with Elijah Adebayo netting a late winner.
In 2024, history repeated itself and despite two performances that could hardly be called fluid or convincing, Luton have now won back to back games for the first time since December.
Lift-off? Perhaps.
