Luton Town Under-21s fought back from two goals down at half-time against Oxford United at Kenilworth Road tonight, with Charlie Trustram and Oli Lynch grabbing the late goals to earn a deserved 2-2 draw for Alex Lawless' lads.
Clearly inspired by some of the team receiving the EFL Youth Alliance South Division champions trophy at the break for their part in the Under-18s' title win, pictured below, the Hatters produced a stunning second half performance to come back from the dead, with Lynch continuing the fine form he showed with 11 goals on loan in National League South at Hemel Hempstead to draw them level.
Oxford took an early lead with a fine third-minute strike from Louis Griffiths, bending a beautiful right-footed shot into the bottom corner from 15 yards out.
Town fought back well and might have levelled in the ninth minute when Finley Marjoram's near-post effort went just the wrong side of the upright.
But the visitors went 2-0 up on 19 minutes when Marselino Ferdinan finished from close range after good work down the right from Kasway Burton.
Once again, the Hatters sought a way back in and after some fine link play between Trustram and Joshua Phillips down the left saw the latter pick out Lynch with an outswinging cross, but the Oxford keeper Jacob Knightbridge got down low to tip around his left post.
Knightbridge presented Taylan Harris with the next chance, trying to play out just before the half-hour, but the former Reading youngster's 30-yard chip with the keeper stranded proved too high.
Marjoram then flashed a right-footed shot across the face of the U's goal, and Trustram fired a free-kick just wide deep into first-half injury-time, with Harris having gone off after receiving treatment, to be replaced by Tate Xavier-Jones.
A scrappy start to the second period found some fluency just after the hour when Xavier-Jones steered Trustram's right-wing cross goalward, with the ball just evading Lynch in the six-yard box, before Vladimir Paternoster's glancing header from another Trustram centre drifted just wide of the far post.
Oxford rarely threatened at the other end, but when they did it was Griffiths who looked to add his second of the night with a shot from outside the box that bounced awkwardly in front of Liam Coyne, our young Australian goalkeeper and son of former Town stalwart, Chris.
The Hatters found their way back into it with a fine strike from Trustram, although the goal owed much to a driving run through the heart of the U's midfield by the impressive Northern Ireland youth international Dylan Stitt.
Stitt fed substitute Liam Hutt wide on the right, and Trustram received his low cross just inside the area, swivelled and shot across Knightbridge and inside the far post.
The deserved equaliser came six minutes later when captain Joe Johnson played a long ball forward and Lynch got to the ball comfortably ahead of the onrushing Knightbridge, who had come out of his area, and lobbed it towards goal with a linesman's flag indicating it had crossed the line after bouncing down off the bar.
The Hatters might have found a winner in the closing stages as the livewire Xavier-Jones got to the byline to cut back for Lynch, who just couldn't adjust his body quick enough to divert the ball goalward, before Oxford broke and spurned a good opening for sub Mubarak Abodale in added time.
Town: Coyne, Marjoram (Hutt 46'), Chard (Giwa 46'), Chigozie, Paternoster (Roberts-Edema 67'), Johnson (c) (Sampson 87'), Trustram (Fox 87'), Stitt, Lynch, Harris (Xavier-Jones 45'), Phillips (Ioannides 67').
Subs not used: Booth (GK), Hincapie-Alfonso, Shepherd.
Goals: Trustram 72', Lynch 78'
Oxford: Griffiths 11', Ferdinan 19'
