AINSWORTH FURY AT KNIGHT’S RED
GARETH Ainsworth let fly at referee Oliver Langford as 10-man Wycombe’s Championship survival hopes were severely dented.
The game flipped on its head when Josh Knight was sent off for a second-half lunge.
George Moncur, Kazenga LuaLua and Elijah Adebayo made the Chairboys pay, with three goals in the last 10 minutes, leaving Ainsworth’s side nine points from safety with five games remaining.
“We’re fighting for our lives. With 11, we played so well,” said the manager. “I’m sure we’ll get it overturned on appeal because there’s no way it’s a red card.
“Josh has slipped. If the referee takes that into consideration he gives a yellow; he made the decision so quickly.
“We seem to have a lot of decisions go against us that have cost us at major times.”
Anis Mehmeti’s first-half penalty had put the hosts ahead as they searched for a third consecutive win, but Knight’s red card before the hour changed the course of the match.
Wycombe had shouts for an early penalty waved away after Uche Ikpeazu picked up the ball and drove into the box, tangling legs with Matty Pearson.
Fred Onyedinma forced the first save out of Luton keeper Simon Sluga a couple of minutes later, before Wycombe were awarded a penalty.
Ikpeazu outmuscled Pearson on the left and found Admiral Muskwe bursting into the box.
Muskwe was felled by Kal Naismith and up stepped Mehmeti, who dispatched his penalty past Sluga.
Two substitutes came on from Luton as the visitors switched formation after the arrival of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harry Cornick. And it wasn’t long before Dewsbury-Hall’s fierce shot stung the palms of David Stockdale.
Knight was then shown a straight red for a lunging tackle on Jordan Clark.
The breakthrough came 10 minutes from time through
Moncur, who had only been on the pitch for three minutes.
Clark was fouled and up stepped the midfielder, whose low free-kick found the bottom corner from 25 yards out.
Luton pushed on and LuaLua, found from a short corner, was off-balance but unleashed a curling shot into the corner of the net.
Adebayo put the gloss on the win two minutes from time after his towering header from a Cornick cross found the back of the net.
Nathan Jones had overseen back-to-back defeats so avoiding an unwanted hat-trick was a relief.
“It took half-time to find the spark. I thought we were really poor first half and I’m loathe to say we were bad, because that’s a lot to do with how Wycombe played,” said the manager.
“They negated us, and it’s difficult to play against them. And that’s what we worked on in training this week.
“At half time I think that was the turning point. I thought the substitutes made the difference and Dewsbury-Hall was one of our outstanding players.”