Nathan Jones delighted after Luton’s last-gasp win over Bournemouth
Luton boss Nathan Jones felt his side were “full value” for their last-gasp 3-2 win over Sky Bet Championship leaders Bournemouth.
With just seconds remaining in stoppage time, Kal Naismith curled in from 20 yards to blow the roof off Kenilworth Road and seal a tremendous victory for the hosts.
Jones said: “With the greatest respect, these will go up. These and Fulham, they’re the best two sides in the league, so to do what we did, I thought we were full value for our win.
“We weren’t categorically better than them, but I thought we were the more aggressive side.
“We created more problems, especially first half and then we finished with real intent to win a football match and that’s what happened.
“It’s a wonderful way to win a game against a very, very, very good side, one of the top two sides in the division, that’s not even arguable.
“First half we were outstanding, I thought we were aggressive, we went after them, never mind about the disallowed goal as even if the goal hadn’t been given we wouldn’t have scored the second as the chain of events would have been different.
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“So a 2-0 lead going into half-time was absolutely right.
“We were always going to lack a bit of energy second half because we haven’t played but the goals are poor, we should defend better, but to show the character that we did is amazing, as I thought we were the ones pushing late on to win the game.”
The first half saw Luton in front on 30 minutes when Lloyd Kelly put through his own net for the second game running against the Hatters, after Mark Travers had denied Elijah Adebayo.
Cameron Jerome thought he had made it 2-0, only to see his strike controversially ruled out for offside when referee Leigh Doughty had already given the goal.
Allan Campbell’s 20-yarder did double the lead on 42 minutes, but in the second period Emiliano Marcondes headed Jack Stacey’s cross into the net just six minutes in to cut the deficit.
Morgan Rogers then scored with his first touch on 78 minutes, slamming home Jamal Lowe’s cross, before Naismith’s moment of magic won it for the hosts.
Cherries boss Scott Parker said: “We gave ourselves a mountain to climb in the first half going two goals down, one an own goal, another one from 30 yards – the boy’s hit a great strike.
“For bits in the first half I liked us but then I thought we got to the final third and really just pitted out, didn’t really cause them any problems through the first phase.
“We got up to that part of the pitch very well but didn’t have enough about us in those moments, and then second half, we showed unbelieve character, quality, the subs coming on made a difference and we get ourselves to 2-2.
“After 2-2, I thought we were right in the ascendancy, I thought we had the momentum with us, but it didn’t pan out like that really.
“At that point the game became quite neutral and then they scored with literally the last kick of the game which is obviously devastating.
“I’m not sure we did enough to win the game, but certainly I didn’t think we deserved to lose it.”