Luton Town back in the big time

After hitting football’s depths, Town will be a Premier League club next season and welcome some of Europe’s big boys to their tiny Kenilworth Road ground

MAD HATTERS Players of Luton Town celebrate after Fankaty Dabo of Coventry City (not pictured) misses the crucial penalty in the shoot-out Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

LUTON TOWN are back in the big time after winning the Championship play-off final 6-5 on penalties against Coventry City, reports the Voice of Sport from Wembley Stadium.

After hitting football’s depths, Town will be a Premier League club next season and welcome some of Europe’s big boys to their tiny Kenilworth Road ground.

Luton will be everyone’s candidates to be relegated but who cares? They deserve their moment of glory having had a fine season. Today was a reward for their tenacity and desire which resulted in a great day out for their loyal fans.

The game had finished 1-1 in regulation and extra time. Each team had taken excellent penalties prior to Coventry’s Fankaty Dabo stepping up and putting his spot kick high and wide to signal joyous celebrations behind the goal populated by Luton supporters.

No one expected this match-up with Coventry and Luton seeing off Middlesbrough and Sunderland respectively in the tense play-off semi finals.

Most estimate that winning this match is worth close to £150 million to the winner which will mean that Luton’s future is now financially sound and that has not always been the case.

The stadium, celebrating its 100th year, was bathed in early summer sunshine and the match’s importance was underpinned by the day’s official,  Michael Oliver, who is considered to be among the Premier League’s very best.

The first half belonged to Luton despite losing their influential captain Tom Lockyer early on to what appeared to be a ligament injury. Prior to that Lockyer’s men had thought they had taken the lead but Gabriel Osho’s close range effort was ruled out for offside.

Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo were threatening the City defence as every minute went by. Morris missed a good chance after a lapse in the Coventry defence and then saw a shot deflected for a corner as the men in orange ramped up the pressure. Next it was Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s turn to pass up an opportunity on 22 minutes.

Two minutes later Luton took the lead. Jordan Clark fired in his 4th goal of the season but all the heavy lifting was done by the dangerous Adebayo who beat Kyle McFadzean with ease before setting up the goal scorer.

On the half hour man-of-the-match Adebayo missed a sitter after a Morris shot was initially blocked in the Coventry area. It was surely easier to score.

At this stage Adebayo was causing all sorts of mayhem and saw his header sail over the Coventry bar after a neat cross by Cody Drameh. Luton had the ball in the back of the net again in the 41st minute but the goal was ruled out as that man Adebayo had handled the ball after a dubious Callum Doyle clearance presented him with opportunity.

Coventry only came alive as the half neared a close. After a period of possession Gustavo Hamer fired over as his team at last came to the party.

Coventry manager Mark Robins clearly got into his men at half time. The body language was now different and their more positive start gave their opponents the jitters.

Luton ‘keeper Ethan Horvath saw his clearance blocked by a marauding Hamer with alarm bells ringing. Next, Horvath and Osho were nearly victims of a Keystone Cops moment. Both players looked to halt a Coventry raid but the ball bounced off Osho with the goal wide open.

All of sudden Coventry looked much more menacing; there was now more energy and threat. The men in blue were now passing the ball to colleagues in the same colour shirt and that was now rattling Town.

They were to get their reward in the 66th minute when Hamer  – after fine work by Viktor Gyokeres – scored with a crisp right foot strike.

This spelt trouble for Town as all season they have been notorious for wasting leads while Adebayo and Morris were now toothless due to a lack of service.

A Matt Godden left foot effort almost sealed Coventry’s domination but he failed to hit the target.

Coventry suffered a big blow when Hamer had to be subbed with just ten minutes to go, his team missed his energy.

There were few genuine chances thereafter but lots of endeavour from both sides. However, real quality was missing. There were two very tired sets of players as we entered extra time.

The only highlight in the first period for the 85,711 in attendance was a shot by Gyokeres who was now winning his battles with the Luton defence.

Late in the second half of extra time Luton sub Luke Berry thought he had won it for his team after he pounced on an error by Jonathan Panzo but he handled in the build up and VAR correctly ruled out his strike.

It was then over to the lottery of penalties and Luton had the winning ticket!

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