New Hatters manager Rob Edwards got his first win in charge of Luton Town in a thrilling 2-1 victory over Norwich City.
Cauley Woodrow scored the late winner on his return from injury to grab his first professional goal for the club since re-signing in the summer.
The game got off to a good start for the home side as chances for Luton came and went. The best chance of these was a free kick by James Bree which was pushed onto the crossbar by Angus Gunn before the rebound from Carlton Morris was clawed away again by the Norwich goalkeeper.
Referee Tim Robinson wasn’t afraid to show cards in this match and he gave Gabriel Osho a yellow card for a challenge which didn’t look worthy of a yellow card according to the home crowd and the players. With tensions high, the score was 0-0 at half time and it looked like the game could swing either way.
Around the hour mark, Luton finally got their lead after dominating most of the match. This was after a long ball was headed down to Dimitrios Giannoulis who was robbed by Allan Campbell outside of the box and he struck the ball into the bottom left corner to put the hatters ahead.
This was short lived as Norwich soon found an equaliser. This was thanks to a Ben Gibson ball through to Teemu Pukki who wrong footed Dan Potts and finished brilliantly into the side netting to level the score line.
With ten minutes to go before injury time, Luton were reduced to ten men. This was after Gabriel Osho got tangled with Teemu Pukki outside the box and the referee saw it as a second bookable offence. The following free kick was sent wide by Adam Idah.
With 10 men and still quite a while to play, things were looking bleak for the hatters as Norwich piled on the pressure. With less than five minutes of regular time to play, Rob Edwards made the bold decision to sub on striker Cauley Woodrow.
In the dying minutes of normal time, Luton found a goal. A James Bree throw in found Jordan Clark who played a short pass to Cauley Woodrow after some great control. Woodrow touched the ball inside the box and released a thunderbolt of a shot which found the top right corner sending Kenilworth Road into pandemonium.
In the last seconds of the game, Norwich had a golden opportunity to equalise. A lovely ball was floated in and headed in the direction of Isaac Hayden. He touched the ball down and his volley was headed off the line by Alfie Doughty. This was followed by more heroic defending by Luton and two outstanding blocks by Cameron Jerome and Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu to secure the win.
A fantastic win for 10-man Luton as they do the double over Norwich to climb up into twelfth place in the league. A perfect late Christmas present for Hatters fans!