Two wins in a row, two clean sheets on the spin, rare away-day joy and Ryan Tunnicliffe scored the winner to beat Middlesbrough. Folks, we’re through the looking glass now – anything is possible.
Luton are now just four points from safety and, from looking dead-and-buried in the Championship relegation stakes, they’ve now got a fighter’s chance of a great escape.
Midfielder Tunnicliffe, who was booed off last weekend against Cardiff, completed a remarkable personal week – following a sterling performance in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday – when he swept in Dan Potts’ delicious cross on 17 minutes.
From there, Town battled and scrapped to a deserved first victory on the road in 12 league games. A twelfth straight defeat would have equalled the club’s worst ever run of results on the road – set back in 1927/28 – but, though understandably nervy, considering the campaign they’ve had, there was never any real danger of reaching that unwanted milestone.
In fact, Boro didn’t manage a meaningful shot on target all game.
That owed a lot to Matty Pearson – excelling in a move out to right back – and Potts putting their bodies, and their crown jewels, on the line to block cross after cross.
The few that made it past their stubborn rearguard were nodded away by a rock-solid Cameron Carter-Vickers and, at times, striker James Collins, who showed he would’ve made a wonderful defender if he didn’t know where the goal was.
Luke Berry and Kazenga LuaLua both returned to the side as two of four eyebrow-raising changes, which saw Glen Rea, James Bree and Izzy Brown rested on the bench, while Harry Cornick was missing entirely with a hamstring issue. The move ultimately worked a treat, as the two midfielders took it upon themselves to shine, Berry in the first period, LuaLua after the interval.
The former was heard afterwards trying to claim an assist for the winner, as he got a glancing head on Potts’ cross, though the ball found its way to Tunnicliffe via Boro skipper George Friend.
It hardly matters how it happened, but that it did, and now the Hatters, with their tails up, have a week to prepare for a monumental relegation six-pointer at Charlton next week.
