Wycombe Wanderers vs Luton Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Adams Park.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Wycombe and Luton at Adams Park as goals from George Moncur, Kazenga LuaLua and Elijah Adebayo sealed a late comeback for the Hatters over the 10-man Chairboys
Saturday 10 April 2021 18:44, UK
Three goals in the last 10 minutes saw Wycombe's Championship survival hopes suffer a major setback as Luton claimed a 3-1 comeback victory at Adams Park.
Anis Mehmeti's first-half penalty had put the hosts ahead as they searched for a third-consecutive win, but Josh Knight's red card before the hour changed the course of the match.
A long-range free-kick from substitute George Moncur and a curled Kazenga LuaLua effort five minutes later put Luton in front in the closing stages.
But there was still time for Elijah Adebayo to head home his fourth goal of the season to secure all three points for a Hatters side whose mid-table finish appears set.
There were warning sides for Luton as Mehmeti curled a shot over the crossbar early, and Sonny Bradley had to be alert to clear from inside his own area after a Jason McCarthy free-kick.
Wycombe also had shouts for a 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 stopper 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 eight minutes before half-time.
Two substitutes came on for Luton as the visitors switched formation after the arrival with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harry Cornick joining to action.
And it was not long before Dewsbury-Hall's fierce shot stung the palms of David Stockdale for his first proper save of the match.
The introduction of Dewsbury-Hall meant that there were three Leicester loanees on the pitch at once, alongside Muskwe and Knight, but that swiftly became two after Knight was given a straight red for a lunging tackle on Jordan Clark.
Luton had already made another attacking substitution with LuaLua coming on, and both James Collins and Adebayo blasted over the crossbar.
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.
The momentum had been with Luton since the Knight sending off and the goal saw them push on.
Five minutes later, LuaLua was picked out from a short corner and off-balance he unleashed a curling shot into the corner of the net.
So far it had been the substitute show but 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.
The result leaves Wycombe nine points from safety with just five games remaining.
Wycombe's Gareth Ainsworth: "We're fighting for our lives. With 11, we played so well. I'm sure we'll get it overturned on appeal because there's no way it's a red card. Josh Knight has slipped. If the referee takes that into consideration he gives a yellow; he made the decision so quickly.
"The red card was out almost before Josh was off the floor. For me, I don't think he's thought about it. He's seen it and thought, 'that's a red'. We seem to have a lot of decisions go against us that have cost us at major times. Luton didn't seem a threat until we went down to 10 men. It's difficult with 10 men in League One and Two let alone the Championship. I'm proud of the boys, they've worked their socks off. We've got to win five from five now and we're well capable of doing that."
Luton's Nathan Jones: "It took half-time to find the spark. I thought we were really poor first half and I'm loathed to say we were bad, because that's a lot to do with how Wycombe played. 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. We showed quality and the patience for the substitutes to say you're going to have to work hard and get the opportunities, it's hard for them. It's nice to have these (selection) decisions now. We've not won three games in a row this season and we haven't lost three games in a row, so this was important. It puts us in a really nice position, with six games to go, we're two points better off than last season."
