Stevenage 2 Luton 2 (3-0 pens): Spot kick woes sees Hatters dumped out of cup – Report and reaction

Harry Cornick, Carlos Mendes-Gomes and Dion Pereira all missed from 12 yards as Luton exited the Carabao Cup 3-0 on penalties after an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Lamex Stadium.

Manager Nathan Jones made 10 changes to the starting XI from the one he picked on Saturday which played so well in the 3-0 victory against Peterborough United, handing out five full debuts with Sam Beckwith, Henri Lansbury, Amiral Muskwe, Mendes-Gomes and Cameron Jerome all involved from the off in Hertfordshire.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t have won it in normal time. But when you go to penalties is a bit of a lottery and they were better than us. You can’t miss three pens and expect to win. Three-nil is as emphatic as you’re likely to see in a penalty competition,” said the Town boss.

The game started in frantic fashion with both sides finding the net in the opening five minutes, the hosts courtesy of Elliott List who found Town stopper James Shea in no man’s land after a long ball over the top before rounding him and finishing nicely inside two minutes.

The Hatters were level three minutes later when Jerome opened his account for the club, as he glanced in a Lansbury set-piece to get the visitors right back in the contest.

Two more goals came before the break with youngster Beckwith unlucky to get in the way of a free kick and deflecting a ricochet past Shea, before another new boy got up and running in a Town shirt as Muskwe fired Luton level at the break, neatly converting Peter Kioso’s wonderful first time ball in.

The second half was always going to struggle to live up to the excitement of the first, and while Jones sent on Cornick, Pereira and Allan Campbell to attempt to win the game, with the former twice going close before the final whistle, Stevenage held firm to take the tie to penalties.

Three dismal efforts from Luton saw penalties saved from Cornick and Mendes-Gomes before Pereira fired over. Stevenage converted all three spot kicks to dump the Hatters out of the Carabao Cup at the first time of asking on what was ultimately a disappointing night for the Championship side despite a number of players getting much needed minutes.

“We needed to use the squad tonight and we had enough to have won the game, so no complaints, really,” Jones told the club’s website.  

“I thought they were both really good and real threats. We didn’t do the basics well enough early on, and gave two poor goals away. I was really happy with our level of performance overall. 

“In the second half we were excellent, created enough chances to win the game, but it was a real good game. Credit to Stevenage, I thought they were excellent for a League Two side.”