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Match Reports

Report | Luton Town 2-3 West Brom

14 January 2023

Match Reports

Report | Luton Town 2-3 West Brom

14 January 2023

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West Brom came from two goals down to take all three points away from Kenilworth Road this afternoon, bring an end to the Hatters' three-match winning run in the Sky Bet Championship.

Carlton Morris' 11th goal of the season and Elijah Adebayo's fourth put Town 2-0 up inside the opening ten minutes.

But Daryl Dike halved the deficit before half-time, then two goals in three minutes by Jayson Molumby and Conor Townsend turned the game on its head midway through the second half as Albion moved above the Hatters and into the play-off places.

Manager Rob Edwards made one change from the New Year's Day victory against Huddersfield Town, with Jordan Clark replacing Louie Watson in the heart of midfield after recovering from a knock.

Tom Lockyer missed last week's FA Cup match against Wigan Athletic but returned to the starting eleven, while Town's leading scorer Morris was joined by Adebayo up front as Town went in search of a fourth consecutive league victory.

Albion had made a bright start, with Jed Wallace's near post attempt deflected wide by Potts before Darnell Furlong couldn't quite connect with John Swift's deep corner.

Seven minutes in, the Hatters were in front, and the goal was another contender for goal of the month, Morris picking the ball up midway inside the Albion half, drifting across from the right to just left of centre, and seemingly setting himself to lay the ball off before zipping a 30-yard shot off the wet surface past former Town loanee Alex Palmer.

Albion tried to respond immediately with a Jayson Molumby header that landed on the roof of the net, but within three minutes of the opener it was two, when Adebayo rose to meet Bree's inch-perfect free-kick from the right with an emphatic header past Palmer from 10 yards.

It might have bee three on 12 minutes when a deep corner from Bree found Potts climbing highest at the far post. The skipper headed back across goal, and Albion could only clear as far as Mpanzu, whose volley into the ground bounced wide of Palmer's right post.

Town were rampant and playing some cracking football, but the Baggies served regular reminders of the threat the have been posing in recent weeks, Okay Yokuslu firing narrowly over from distance before Ethan Horvath had to tip Dara O'Shea's angled drive over his bar.

Morris had a huge penalty appeal rejected when he went down under an apparent push from Conor Townsend as he looked to get on the end of a Potts centre, before his former Barnsley team-mate Daryl Dike headed against the bar from close range.

Horvath had to react smartly to push away a ball that came at him quickly off Mpanzu's knee, before going down with a knock having also blocked the follow-up from Furlong.

Town were having to weather an Albion storm and needed Horvath to be in fine form again in the 36th minute when turning a Wallace shot around his near post.

The USA keeper was beaten on 39 minutes, however, when Dike raced towards a ball over the top from O'Shea and managed to deflect Horvath's attempted clearance goalward as they came together on the edge of the box, before shepherding it over the line as Lockyer looked to get back to clear.

Doughty carried the ball from his own box to the Albion penalty area two minutes later, before shooting straight at Palmer, then Mpanzu became the first into referee Josh Smith's book for a foul on Wallace as the end of a breathless first half approached.

After an interval in which neither manager made a change, it was Albion's Carlos Corberan who made the first move, bringing on Grady Diangana - scorer of a brace here in 2019 - in place of Swift.

Campbell couldn't keep his effort down as Town attacked just before the hour, and it was the Scot whose tenacity led to the game's next yellow card, for Molumby, as the Albion midfielder slid in late in front of the Enclosure.

It was the Irishman who forced the equaliser home on 65 minutes, when Horvath had palmed a Phillips cross down, then saved from Townsend before Molumby shot through a crowd of players on the line for 2-2.

Albion went 3-2 up on 67 minutes when a ball across the Hatters' six-yard box from Phillips was turned in at the far post by Townsend.

Edwards made a triple change with just under 20 minutes remaining, throwing Harry Cornick, Cameron Jerome and Cauley Woodrow into attack in place of the two goalscorers and Mpanzu, before bringing Louie Watson on for Clark ten minutes later.

Bell looked to have got in on the left and fired an inviting ball across looking for Woodrow in the six-yard box, with Erik Pieters getting back to turn it over his own bar, although the linesman's flag was up for offside as the Hatters' frustrations continued.

O'Shea seemed to have let Cornick in off his shoulder from a long kick forward by Horvath, only to recover and nod it back calmly to Palmer as the Town sub looked to profit.

It wasn't to come, however, and it was Albion who continued their winning run to move into the play-off places.

 

Goals: 

LT - Morris 7, Adebayo 10

WBA - Dike 39, Molumby 65, Townsend 67

Att: 10,069 (1,042 away)


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