MANCHESTER United continued their recent good form in the league as they claimed their fourth straight victory with a narrow 2-1 win against Luton, reports the Voice of Sport from Kenilworth Road.

Luton suffered a big blow before kick off as Elijah Adebayo had to be replaced by Cauley Woodrow due to an injury in the warm up.   There was an even bigger blow to come as Amari Bell failed to clear Casemiro’s long punt forward. Rasmus Hojlund pounced and rounded Thomas Kaminski and slotted the ball home in just 37 seconds to give United the lead.

Moments later from a Luke Shaw corner Alejandro Garnacho  hit a shot, which Hojlund chested  into the net to get his second and United’s second goal. The young Danish striker has now scored in 6 consecutive games. 

With only 14 minutes gone, former United player Tahith Chong hit a shot which was deflected into the path of Carlton Morris who got to the ball before Andre Onana and headed it home to reduce the deficit for Luton.  That was Morris’ third goal in a row. Just when United thought they might cruise in this game Luton reminded them what is was like when big boys come to town. 

In the 36th minute Garnacho misplaced a pass, which was latched onto by Morris but his shot from distance was wide of Onana’s goal. Just before the break Luke Shaw pulled up injured and was replaced by Victor Linderloff. 

At the beginning of the second half Casemiro and Harry Magurie were replaced by Sott McTominay and Jonny Evans. Marcus Rashford picked up the ball midway into the Luton half and drove towards goal. He hit a shot which Kaminski had to save.

 On the hour mark Bruno Fernandes went round Kaminski but as he hit his shot it was blocked by Albert Sambi Lokonga.  Garnacho was quite wasteful in this game. Twice he had chances to kill off the game but he did not.

On one occasion he tried to go round the keeper when it seemed easier to shoot.  Fernandes also wasted a chance when Luton tried to pass the ball out from the back. He did not even hit the target.  Luton kept pressing for an equaliser but despite the two changes in the United defence the team stood firm and saw out the game despite Ross Barkley hitting the crossbar..

This victory kept United’ hopes of finishing in the top four very much alive. 

United manager Erik Ten Haag said: “We made the two changes because there was pressure on the referee.  There is pressure because we did not take our chances. We should have scored more. We dropped too deep and allowed crosses. 

Luton have only lost 2 games this season by two goals so it is not easy against them. We were not more clinical. Today we could have scored more goals.” 

Luton manager Rob Edwards said: “Losing our number 9  before the game and conceding in 40 seconds is not ideal.  We then conceded a second within 7 minutes. I feared the worst but credit to the lads you cannot give a Manchester United team  a two goal start.

“We are disappointed  and we felt we could win today. We showed that today after the first 10 minutes. Tahith Chong ran himself into the ground today. We just could not find that second goal today.”