Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Luton Town and Huddersfield at Kenilworth Road as Ben Jackson scored in the second half to earn a point for the Terriers on Tuesday night.
Tuesday 4 October 2022 23:33, UK
Huddersfield manager Mark Fotheringham collected his first point since taking charge of the Terriers as his side recorded a 3-3 Championship draw against Luton at Kenilworth Road.
The visitors - who finished the match with 10 men - scored with their first attack after just 10 minutes when Sorba Thomas' vicious inswinging corner glanced off the head of Luton striker Carlton Morris to find the net.
Morris looked to level the scores immediately, his downward header too close to Lee Nicholls, but Luton were level after 18 minutes when Morris found Elijah Adebayo, who turned his man in the area and saw his attempt deflect off visiting defender Michal Helik to just about cross the line.
Nicholls then made a terrific save from Jordan Clark's first-time half-volley from outside the box, before Jordan Rhodes tried his luck on the half-hour and Ethan Horvath smothered the danger.
However, Rhodes was given the chance from the penalty spot after 32 minutes when Helik's header was adjudged to have struck Dan Potts' hand and the experienced forward made no mistake with his fourth goal of the season.
Once more though, the Hatters were not behind for long as Morris's ball over the top saw a confident Adebayo bully Luke Mbete to win it and then - when faced with Nicholls - found the corner for his second of the night.
Clark had another attempt deflect narrowly behind before he made it 3-2 just before the break as James Bree went on a magnificent run forward, picking out the midfielder who turned his man and beat Nicholls to break his duck for the campaign.
After the break, Duane Holmes saw his cross-shot flash wide, before Potts, on his 200th appearance, bounced a header over the top and Fred Onyedinma's centre was palmed away by Nicholls.
The Terriers were back in it themselves with 20 minutes left as Thomas sent over a wonderful corner and Ben Jackson picked out the top corner.
Luton should have been back in front moments later as Adebayo spurned two good chances of his own from corners and the Hatters might have claimed it late on had Allan Campbell not fired off target, while substitute Harry Cornick's rasping drive went straight to Nicholls.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men in stoppage time with David Kasumu booked twice in quick succession for fouls on Clark and Campbell, but there was no time for Nathan Jones' men to take advantage as the spoils were shared.
Luton's Nathan Jones: "It's the only thing I could see them scoring from, but the only problem was every time they had a set-play, we looked like we were going to head it in. We scored two own goals, we didn't do the basics well enough, but apart from that, we were magnificent. We had 24 shots, 11 on target, three goals, we wanted to be aggressive - target certain areas, target certain people.
"The gameplan was perfect, apart from we just could not head the ball out of our 18-yard box when they had a set-play, as they've only had four set-plays. Three of them have gone in and we've headed two in ourselves, that's not good enough, you can't do that."
Huddersfield's Mark Fotheringham: "Sorba is one of the best players in the Championship. His set-piece delivery is out of this world and I think the fans are going to be excited as we've got good variety in the set-plays as well. We could do better on both sides, our structure was good, but there were little final decisions with the final pass.
"It was a difficult game, the manner in which we lost our goals were bitterly disappointing, because when you come to a place like this you have to start from a solid base. We looked solid and we knew what we were going to expect, but it was really the manner in which we lost the goals that hurt me. There is a lot of room for improvement, so we've just got to keep patient and keep working on a daily basis, I was really pleased with certain aspects of the game."
