Elijah Adebayo smashed his first-ever Premier League hat-trick with an 18-second opener as Luton blew away Brighton and Hove Albion to lift themselves out of the bottom three.
Town were 2-0 up two minutes later after Chiedozie Ogbene bagged a quick-fire second, rounding the rash keeper Jason Steele outside the penalty area and running into an empty net.
It was a blitz that ignited a night where everything went right for the Hatters, particularly their top scorer.
Manager Rob Edwards said of Adebayo, whose treble took him to eight Premier League goals this term: “It’ll be great for him, won’t it? It will give him loads more confidence and belief. His performances have been excellent for a long time now. He presses so hard. His hold-up play is really, really improving.
“He’s focusing on that and working on that in training. He’s bringing other people into play and I think he was really tidy tonight and looked confident.
“But, he got the rewards with his goals as well. He was excellent tonight, as they all were.”
Luton were 3-0 up by half time courtesy of Adebayo who fired in after a glorious combination with Ross Barkley.
Edwards said: “You try to start aggressively and on the front foot but we got a great start with goals as well.
“I still think that when you’re going up against a top team, and Brighton are that, that they’re dangerous. We scored two in two minutes so why can’t they?
“We’ve been punished this year, quickly by other top teams, so it was important that we kept our foot down and kept trying to do the right things.
“That was what was really impressive about us tonight, we were relentless, we didn’t come off. The game plan was great, the lads committed to it. There was nothing they did that surprised us, so I thought our plan was really, really good. The lads were excellent tonight.”
Clinical was the more apt description, as when they ended the first half they’d had four chances and scored three. It was very nearly 4-0 early in the second period as Jordan Clark fired in the rebound after Jason Steele – at fault for the second – parried away Carlton Morris’ shot. But VAR ruled the midfielder just offside.
But the fourth came in the 56th minute when Alfie Doughty’s corner was flicked into Adebayo’s path by Brighton’s former Watford hitman Joao Pedro, who has now endured two torrid visits to Kenilworth Road. Luton’s Magic Man, who cost £29,700,000 less than the Brazilian, couldn’t miss as he collected the match ball.
As well as claiming the glory, Adebayo became the first Hatter to score a top-flight hat-trick since Lars Elstrup against Norwich in 1990. The Canaries were also the victims the year before as the last team to let in four against Luton in the country’s elite division.
But with just one defeat in Town’s last eight games in all competitions, the class of 2024 are now building up a head of steam.
They’re finding the net and at the other end they kept out Albion with aplomb. Even without the increasingly colossal Teden Mengi, who missed out with a knock, Gabriel Osho ruled his territory and keeper Thomas Kaminski could’ve had a cigar either side of a save against Danny Welbeck to keep his second clean sheet of the campaign.
It was a defensive display befitting of Luton captain Tom Lockyer, who made an emotional return to the Kenilworth Road turf for the first time since his cardiac arrest last month, taking a pre-match lap of honour.
Edwards said of Lockyer: “It was really special. Seeing him at the training ground yesterday was really good and we spoke about coming in and seeing the supporters again, we think it was the right thing to do.
“He was up for that and I think you can see, and I’ve just seen the pictures on the screen at the back (of the press room), it was the right thing to do for him. They’re great pictures.
“So, it was a really good night for us.”
‘Good’ is an understatement. If there were any ghosts from the 4-1 humbling handed to them by Brighton on the opening day of the season, this was a full exorcism. But the real spectacle was just how rapid the evolution of the Hatters has been.
From being totally written off after their visit to Sussex, they were utterly ruthless on home soil, with Barkley and Sambi Lokonga pulling the strings in ways that seemed unreachable four months ago – and not just because they didn’t feature in the reverse fixture.
New signing Daiki Hashioka could scarcely have believed his luck at landing a move to Luton, as he introduced himself at the half-time interval, his new team cruising on a three-goal lead and fireworks lighting up the night sky behind the Main Stand. Town had never had it so good.
But then results elsewhere went Luton’s way too, so the Hatters swapped their place in the drop zone with Everton.
And with a game in hand on the Toffees, having despatched them in the FA Cup on Saturday, the feel-good factor is starting to kick up a notch.
A packed Kenilworth Road sang for Edwards, for Barkley, for Lockyer and for goal hero Adebayo, but most full-heartedly, they chanted with ever-increasing belief that their team will stay in the Premier League. The early season doubters who had them pegged as whipping boys, have been turning awfully quiet. They were silenced 18 seconds after kick-off.
