Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Luton Town and Sheffield Wednesday at Kenilworth Road as second-half goals from Kal Naismith, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Elijah Adebayo secured as stunning comeback for Nathan Jones' Hatters
Saturday 27 February 2021 19:13, UK
Luton produced a sensational comeback to defeat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 at Kenilworth Road.
They were trailing 2-0 at half-time to Josh Windass's double after an opening 45 minutes in which the hosts were second best by a long distance.
But they were level after just 15 minutes of the second period with Kal Naismith and Ryan Tunnicliffe scoring, before Elijah Adebayo then headed home a dramatic late winner.
The visitors had led on six minutes as a short goal kick was given away by Luton inside their own half and Callum Paterson got clear on the right before cutting the ball back for Windass to score.
Windass looked for a second moments later, making his way in from the left, but dragged wide of the target from outside the box.
It was all Wednesday in the opening stages, Julian Borner unable to divert his header on target while Kadeem Harris saw two shots deflected behind as the visitors continued to have the better of proceedings.
They should have led 2-0 on 21 minutes, when Windass was clean through the middle and faced with just Simon Sluga to beat, the attacker shooting wastefully off target.
Sluga did well to prevent Matt Penney's long-range attempt from flying in, with an offside Paterson sending the rebound well over.
However, as Luton tried to get through to the break just 1-0 behind, a second arrived as a completely unmarked Windass lashed a cross into the top corner.
Luton boss Nathan Jones made three changes at the break and Town gave themselves a lifeline inside three minutes of the second half, Naismith meeting a corner on his left foot to divert a first goal for the club into the corner.
It was 2-2 on 58 minutes as Adebayo did well on the left, sending a low cross into the box where Tunnicliffe advanced to beat Joe Wildsmith and notch his first of the season.
Adebayo then wriggled clear in the area and could only shoot into the side-netting, while Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu failed to reach Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's searching cross at the far post.
Paterson went close for the Owls midway through the half, his volley not missing by much, while Luton tried to get a third, Tunnicliffe slamming over.
There was to be a winner though, and it came for the Hatters with just four minutes left.
Harry Cornick did superbly on the right to stand up a cross for Adebayo to power home a downward header and complete a stunning turnaround which not many would have predicted.
Luton's Nathan Jones: "To a man second half they were outstanding, I don't think they had a shot on target whereas first they could have had a hundred, literally could have had a hundred. It was just such a chalk and cheese performance, the levels went up, the basics went up, every single thing went through the roof and I'm just so happy and proud.
"A few years ago I would have gone in ranting and raving (at half-time) and not made a clinical decision and we wouldn't have got the game back, but I've learned as a manager, I'm growing as a manager. I didn't say too much to the players actually because we had about 10, 12 minutes in the manager's office where we thought calm and collectively about what is going to turn this around.
"We deliberated and deliberated, went right to the wire really and then came out with those changes, with that personnel and then second half was just categorically different from what we got first half."
Sheffield Wednesday's Neil Thompson: "It was probably as well as we've played first half. We created chances, lots of them, got a great reaction from midweek which is what we wanted, showed a lot of energy, probably should have been more than two up. They've upped their tempo, but it was a bit of a stop-start beginning to the second half, we couldn't get into any rhythm, but that's no excuse, you've still got to track runners and deal with balls in the box.
"One of the goals is a corner which they've worked well and two of the goals we should have possession in their half of the pitch and we didn't and got punished. I always give everyone a well done at half-time when they've had a good half,
we speak about 'they're going to come at us, they're going to make changes', they did that and we weren't able to cope with it.
"You need to do the basics right, that's what we've got to do and we didn't do that second half."
