Clark sparks big fightback to give Luton a lifeline

Luton Town 2 Clark 73, Morris 90 Bournemouth 1 Tavernier 52

THE Luton Town fairytale is most certainly not over yet. A heroic fightback at Kenilworth Road earned them a first win in 11 games to breathe new life into their battle for Premier League survival.

Jordan Clark and Carlton

Morris scored second-half goals after Bournemouth had dominated the first and led through Marcus Tavernier.

‘I lost it a little bit, the emotion got to me but this was a big statement,’ said manager Rob Edwards of his full-time celebrations in front of the raucous Kenilworth Road crowd.

‘It’s big. It’s hard at the moment with the number of key players injured. That’s why I love the lads in there, they’re giving us everything.

‘There are players who have fought so hard on their footballing career to get here and they don’t want to give it up.’

Having taken just three points from the last 30 available and with a trip to Manchester City up next, this was at the very least a ‘must-not lose’ for the Hatters who now sit in 18th place and are behind Nottingham Forest only on goal difference.

But in Bournemouth, they faced formidable opposition with Andoni Iraola’s side having won their last three games.

Tavernier struck the angle of post and crossbar in a 10thminute warning shot for Luton.

Six minutes later, Justin Kluivert fired against the base of the post, then curled a shot onto the roof of the net.

The Cherries deservedly took the lead in 52 minutes as Tavernier hit a superb 20-yard shot low into the corner after Kluivert had darted in from the right flank. Tavernier later went off with Iraola confirming a hamstring injury.

Luton were lacking quality but not spirit and were unlucky not to equalise when Clark won the ball high up the pitch and found Morris who hit the post.

Edwards revealed that Morris, his captain, had called a players’ meeting on Thursday ‘to talk about what needs to be done for this run-in and the importance of it’. His side were growing into the game the more it wore on and the roof almost came off Kenilworth Road when they scored a deserved equaliser with 17 minutes remaining.

The tireless Clark drove at Bournemouth’s defence, got a little bit of good fortune as the ball came back to him off Lloyd Kelly, before he buried his shot low into the corner.

Then, in the 90th minute, Luton summoned one last push as Cauley Woodrow crossed for Morris to side-foot home, cuing chants of ‘the Town are staying up’.

‘When you lose at the end it hurts,’ said Iraola, whose team had produced a stunning fightback to beat Luton three weeks ago after trailing 3-0 at half-time. ‘I understand the narrative of the game, that they are playing for survival, but every 50/50 has gone for them.’