An injury-time winner from substitute Nassim El-Gourja booked the Hatters Under-18s a place in the semi-finals of Youth Alliance Cup on Saturday morning.
In a dramatic quarter-final against Cheltenham the Town youngsters were reduced to 10 men on 17 minutes when Fin Evans was shown a straight red card.
However, Joe Deeney’s side rallied and took the lead in the 33rd minute. Darren Frimpong-Kwakye and Archie Shepherd combined down the left for the latter to cross for Dawid Gawel who finished from 12 yards.
Four minutes before the break the Hatters then needed a superb penalty save from goalkeeper Charlie Booth to prevent Cheltenham equalising.
After the break the Town came close to doubling the lead when Shepherd hit the crossbar from close range shortly before the hour.
And four minutes later Cheltenham were level when the Hatters failed to clear the ball in the penalty area and Booth was beaten by a close-range finish.
As time ticked down, Jerome Passley-James came close to a winner for the Town before Cheltenham spurned a glorious chance to win it when clean through on goal.
But the Hatters had the final say at the death when Alfin Asufi’s corner was nodded goalwards by Rufus Barnes and El-Gourja was alive to head home the winner to spark wild scenes of celebration.
“You could see how much it meant at the end,” Deeney said afterwards. “I was proud of the players because it would have been easy for to use the red card as an excuse.
“Playing for as long as we did with 10 men is a credit to them and we continued to create chances, too.
“To book our place in the semi-final showing this kind of resilience is more than we deserved and I’m happy that we’ve turned the corner after a little wobble.”
The Hatters youngsters are next in action on Tuesday night when they travel to defend their PLD Cup crown in a last-16 tie against Northampton.
Town: Booth, Asamoah Junior, Barnes, Evans, Kwame Anson, Frimpong-Kwakye, Fox, Isufi, Lesser, Shepherd, Gawel.
Subs: Flynn, Passley-James, Ed-Okungbowa, El-Gourja, Mehmetaj.
