Three stunning goals in eight late second half minutes from George Moncur, Kazenga LuaLua and Elijah Adebayo saw Luton finally put to bed the deja vu of a dreadful away-day record and obliterate a pathetic first half.
The less said about the first period, the better, but Town played right into the anti-football hands of basement boys Wycombe Wanderers, who played for the last half an hour deservedly with ten men.
But 20 minutes earlier, when Kal Naismith upended Admiral Muskwe for Anis Mehmeti to covert from the spot the threat of a 12th defeat on their travels looked inevitable.
That was because all 11 times the Hatters had conceded first away from Kenilworth Road, they’d lost. And in a dreary first 45 minutes where they failed to even register a shot on target, there was little sign of a change in those misfortunes.
But manager Nathan Jones rang the changes at half time and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harry Cornick came on proving instrumental in turning the tide and in finally putting to bed the miserable manner of their troubles on their travels.
Luton were already in the ascendancy after the restart but then Josh Knight was shown a 57th minute straight red for sliding into Jordan Clark with studs up and going over the top of the ball. By the letter of the law, it was the correct decision irrespective of Chairboys boss Gareth Ainsworth’s post-match protestations.
Jones said: “A lot will go down and say that the sending off changed the game but I’m not quite sure. Look, it helped 100 per cent, but I think half time actually helped. We were able to regroup, change shape a little bit and change one or two personnel and then really start on the front foot. I thought we were excellent in the second half.
“We added quality in the second half. Kiernan was excellent. He was only out because he had a sore back and I thought we demonstrated real quality int he second half. Yeah, we did have a numerical advantage but I feel that we possibly could’ve done that anyway.”
It still took a work of art and sublime disguise to draw level as substitute Moncur, in only his third minute on the pitch, curled a low 30-yard free-kick low around the Wycombe wall when everyone was expecting him to go over the top.
But it got even better five minutes later when another sub, LuaLua dropped a trademark shoulder and slammed into the top corner from outside the area, virtually ripping the net from the posts. Cue the best celebratory backflip since that memorable winner at Hull last term.
Jones said: “I’m so delighted for George and Kaz because we keep preaching that it’s a squad game and you’ll get your opportunities.
“They train so well every day and they have a great attitude. They get frustrated at times but I never see that.
“They want to be here. They don’t have to prove they want to be here. What they have to do is be given opportunities. They’ve got real quality. It’s just that we want to keep evolving and can we evolve with everyone? I don’t know. Who can we take forward? Those are the decisions, but they’ve been brilliant and it’s a brilliant group.
“It’s two fantastic goals and Kazegna has that. He needs to add a bit of consistency.”
Former Town striker Craig Mackail-Smith was in the commentary box at Adams Park and having played with LuaLua at Brighton, Jones joked, “he can testify that, Kazenga, if you get him around the box, can hit the kebab shop 100 metres down the road or he can hit the top bins and that’s what he does.”
And the first away-day comeback of the campaign was emphatically completed when Cornick picked out Adebayo who delivered a bullet header to notch his fourth of the season, having missed a golden chance moments earlier.
“He scored the goal that we brought him for. That’s the type of goal we wanted from him,” Jones told the BBC.
“We’ve had fantastic goalscorers, in terms of Collo (James Collins) and Danny Hylton, Cornick and Elliot Lee’s clever, but we haven’t had a real big man who’s mobile and can really go and attack stuff.
“We got Ollie Palmer for that (in League Two) but he proved he was just a big Jack Marriott that would run channels for us, absolutely brilliant, so we haven’t really had that.
“He’s been excellent, so we’re really happy and there’s still plenty more to come.”
For Town, it moved them to 53 points, to better last term’s total of 51 with six games to go and send them into next week’s Watford derby on a high, where a repeat of this fabulous second period will be required for two halves to harm their rivals’ automatic promotion push.
PLAYER RATINGS:
Simon Sluga – 6
The Croatian international got a hand to Mehmeti’s spot-kick but the power took it beyond him. He had little else to do as Town dominated the second period.
Kal Naismith – 5
Clumsily took out Admiral Muskwe to concede a penalty, for Anis Mehmeti to convert, but like the rest of Luton’s defence went untroubled in the second half.
Sonny Bradley – 7
The skipper returned to the starting line-up for the first time in a month and a half. He cleared the danger after the ball pinged dangerously around the penalty area in the first half and was booked in the 31st minute for a foul on Admiral Muskwe, but was then seen more around Wycombe’s box after the restart.
Matty Pearson – 6
The centre back was involved in plenty of tussles with Uche Ikpeazu, getting the better of one in the penalty area when the forward flung himself to the turf, spreadeagled, looking unsuccessfully for a spot-kick. He then got a bloody nose for his troubles in the build-up to Wycombe’s penalty. Replaced by George Moncur in the 77th minute.
James Bree – 4
A return to the starting line-up for the right back but it’s not been the season he’d hoped for and he was replaced by Kazenga LuaLua in the 54th minute.
Ryan Tunnicliffe – 4
A fairly anonymous appearance where he was replaced at the break by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Luke Berry – 3
His first start for two months and we saw little of him, so he might find another one hard to come by this term. Replaced at the break by Harry Cornick
Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu – 7
He typified Town’s higher tempo in the second half. He saw a header saved, but was offside, and should’ve had an assist when he played through to Elijah Adebayo, who missed a great chance at 2-1.
Jordan Clark – 7
Did well to get ahead of Admiral Muskwe to prevent what would’ve been the first chance of the game after some head tennis in the penalty area. He had a positive and probing second half, exemplified by a fine pass to put Elijah Adebayo in an advanced position.
James Collins – 6
Had a big chance when teed up well by Kazenga LuaLua, but he skied it. He then had a big shout for a penalty in the 72nd minute after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall pulled back from the byline, but his appeals came to nothing. Replaced by Glen Rea in injury time.
Elijah Adebayo – 8
His 88th minute bullet header was just rewards for a fine second half, which included some stunning touches and control. He should’ve scored before his head as well but he fired over when clean through.
SUBSTITUTES:
Harry Cornick – 9 (joint star man)
Seemed to be given a brief to pepper the host’s box with crosses and he obliged, with his 88th minute centre the pick of the bunch to claim as assist for Elijah Adebayo. His introduction was instrumental in Town’s change of fortunes from the start of the second half.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – 9 (joint star man)
The midfielder got into the action immediately and saw keeper David Stockdale beat away his fierce shot. He should’ve had an assist is fast becoming a catch-phrase for these assessments of his contributions, but despite reading a defender’s dummy to nip in to behind and pull back from the byline for James Collins, his work went unconverted but, overall, not unappreciated.
Kazenga LuaLua – 8.5
He smashed a top corner stunner to effectively seal the comeback victory, up there with the best he’s hit in a Hatters shirt. He had previously Picked out James Collins after great work to get to the byline, and should’ve had an assist but the striker was wildly off target.
George Moncur – 8.5
A sublimely disguised low free-kick from 30 yards in the 80th minute drew Luton level. It wasn’t quite as important as his famous free-kick against Portsmouth in League One, but it was a far more difficult execution and breathed a huge sigh of relief over this contest, when Wycombe were trying to keep hold of their slender lead.
Glen Rea – N/A
Not on long enough for a rating.
UNUSED SUBS: James Shea, Martin Cranie, Sam Nome, Joe Morrell
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Just a further thought following the comments about Moncur. It seems to me that – not for the first time – the squad is unbalanced in that we have too many mid-fielders. At the back we’re just about ok. Lockyer should be fit again next season, and I’d hope Kioso will be back from Northampton. Up front, too, although a bit lacking in cover, we now have a potential Collins/Adebayo combination as a starting-point. There aren’t too many questions about these areas. I suppose Pelly and D-H – assuming he stays on – would be first choices in mid-field, with Clark making a third of the quartet. Moncur would be my fourth. But what about the others? At the moment they seem to be slotted in almost willy-nilly, without much sense of ongoing shape and development. And why, in the circumstances, did we sign Ince? NJ needs to take a long hard look at both personnel and style of play in this area next season – especially if, as is likely, D-H returns to Leicester.
PS Having said something very much on the same lines a few matches ago, I’d endorse Jim’s opinion regarding Moncur. He should, in my view, be one of the first names on the team-sheet.
What’s with this ‘dreadful away-day record’? Prior to yesterday we had won seven away games – admittedly by the tightest of margins – and now it’s eight. Yes, we’ve suffered the odd thumping – but we’re not alone in that. Overall, it’s not even a poor away record, let alone ‘dreadful’.
It did look as if those three points were slipping away from us at Wycombe, but the game-changers did what they were supposed to do. Lovely work from Moncur and LuaLua, followed by a superb headed goal by Adebayo from Cornick’s cross. They turned the day round – really lifting the gloom. And I followed up by getting the Grand National winner! Can’t be bad!
Naismith was the only positive in the first half, even with conceding a pen. Jones should consider why he tried to play anti football to match Wycombe. We don’t have the players for that – thankfully. It showed we need a nastier spine though if we’re going to move forward. What I’d like to see is only trying to match the opposition when they’re genuinely much better than us (the likes of Brentford). When we’re playing against the rest, how’s about playing our game – which I hope becomes ball on the floor, fast tempo with and without the ball, fast, direct passing, attack minded. We didn’t need to play hoof ball yesterday.
Ainsworth is a wally. The tackle from Knight wasn’t malicious but when your foot slips over the top of the ball and makes contact with a player, it’s a straight red, no question. Just like it was a pen all day long despite Collo’s stupid whinge at the ref about Pearson catching an accidental hand as he tried to pull their guy down. Collo needs to consider too whether he’s playing for the team or himself. I thought it was quite a selfish performance from him yesterday. The flop trying to win a pen when he could have more easily scored was the icing on the cake.
And finally, can Moncur have a run in the team now? And ideally be offered a new contract? He’s the most influential of our players out wide, other than Cornick. And he’s more consistent than Berry, Kaz, Rea and Morrell. We play better when Jones accommodates him and his style of play.