Rob Edwards said he was feeling “drained” after his Luton side scored a 90th-minute winner to come from behind to beat Bournemouth and take a huge step in the direction of Premier League survival.
Carlton Morris’s goal at the death – knocked in at the far post from substitute Cauley Woodrow’s cross – capped a strong second-half display from the home side and moved them level on points with 17th-place Nottingham Forest, who have a game in hand. Bournemouth remained 12th with 41 points after suffering their first defeat since February.
That footnote felt insignificant at the end as the stadium rocked with the euphoria of a first league win since Brighton were beaten here late in January.
“I’m quite drained,” said Edwards. “It’s been a tough period and it’s going to continue to be. It feels great. It’s hard to win a Premier League game, especially for us. We’ve got to find more in the remaining games.
“We put pressure on the lads after [losing against] Tottenham and Arsenal, but I thought we deserved it. We showed character and quality after going 1-0 down.”
Bournemouth had dominated the first half and struck the woodwork twice, first when James Tavernier’s free-kick crashed back off a post then again when Justin Kluivert hit the same upright with a low shot.
Luton were lacklustre and showed little in attack, but they emerged after the break with renewed life and went close through Morris, who drew two fine saves from goalkeeper Neto.
Yet they fell behind almost immediately, Tavernier taking the ball off Kluivert in a central position and – after letting it run across his body – arrowing it into the corner.
At that point Luton might have caved in, but instead they found renewed fight. Jordan Clark levelled after 73 minutes, finishing off a move he had started with a powerful run and lashing the ball home first time.
A point might have been fair, but Morris met Woodrow’s cross at the death to nick all three.
Edwards said: “It’s big. It’s hard at the moment with the number of key players missing. But that’s why I love those lads in there. They’ve given us everything, they’ve tried so hard.
“Jordan Clark, who’s got his first Premier League goal today, is like so many of our lads who have fought really hard over their footballing journey so far to get here. They don’t want to give this up.
“Just because we’ve won the game today, we’re not out of it, clearly. There’s a long, long way to go, but we’re still in the fight.”
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Bournemouth’s manager, Andoni Iraola, who had seen his team win four out of five in the league, reflected on a game that got away from them after the break.
“When you lose at the end, it’s hard,” he said. “It’s been the opposite in the last few games we’ve played.
“We were comfortable for the first 60 minutes, but in the second half it was difficult to find the spaces we’d been finding in the first half.”
The manager added that windy conditions put them at a disadvantage in the second half.
“It affected the game. It was very good for us in the first half and very bad in the second half,” he said. “We weren’t finding the spaces with the long balls like in the first half.”
Bournemouth will hope to bounce back when they host Manchester United next Saturday, while Luton await a daunting visit from the defending champions, Manchester City.
“I’ll probably start losing sleep about Man City and trying to think about how to stop them,” Edwards said.
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