Reading 3-2 Luton Town: Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan comes off the bench to earn Royals victory

Luton Town’s League One play-off push suffered a setback when they fell to a 3-2 defeat at struggling Reading.

Despite Luton fighting back from two goals down to draw level late on, Reading substitute Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan snatched a 78th-minute winner to bring the Hatters’ four-match unbeaten league run to an end.

The hosts had raced into a 2-0 lead through Lewis Wing’s penalty and a strike from Jack Marriott, before Luton responded with goals from Jordan Clark and Nigel Lonwijk to make it 2-2.

Afterwards, Hatters boss Jack Wilshere urged his side to cut out what he described as “cheap goals”.

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Frustrating

Wilshere said: “It’s frustrating because, when you play like that and dominate the game, and when you ask the players to do something and they execute it almost perfectly, it’s the same old thing.

“We just keep conceding cheap goals… we have to start to understand that those can be the moments that really matter.

“I’ve been there as a player that, when you come back into a game, there is a natural sigh of relief.

“But we have to manage that and we have to recognise that. We were the only team that was going to win this game.

“But we miss a header, there’s a ball in behind us, and we concede again. We just have to stop conceding those cheap goals.

“It’s so frustrating. We have to become a team where that doesn’t happen and we can become a team where that doesn’t happen.

“When it does happen, when we get punished, it hurts. But the players did execute a lot of the stuff that we had been talking about.

“You could see in the first half, Reading didn’t know how to press us. There was a lot of good things, but ultimately, it was so disappointing.

“We came here for three points and we go away with none.”

Match action

Town started the stronger, with Cohen Bramall driving wide after finding space, but Reading soon found themselves ahead.

Hatters goalkeeper Josh Keeley clumsily felled Daniel Kyerewaa following a swift home break, and Wing coolly converted from the spot for his sixth goal of the season in the eighth minute.

Town could have equalised shortly afterwards, but Reading goalkeeper Joel Pereira made a superb save to turn over an inswinging Kal Naismith corner that had flicked goalwards off Wing’s thigh.

The Royals struck again in the 52nd minute when patient build-up play ended with Randell Williams setting up Marriott to sweetly drill home from the edge of the area.

Luton pulled a goal back seven minutes later when Wing made a hash of clearing a Shayden Morris cross and Clark poked in the loose ball.

Full-back Lonwijk crashed home a glorious equaliser from distance in the 76th minute, only for Ehibhatiomhan to guide the winner past Keeley from a tight angle two minutes later.

Delighted

Reading moved up from 18th in the table – only out of the relegation zone on goal difference – to 14th.

“I was delighted with the result and delighted with how we responded to a negative setback [Luton’s two goals],” Royals manager Leam Richardson said.

“Not so pleased with how it came about. I thought that we were in control of the game at 2-0.

“But we know that we’ve got a young squad and some young players who are learning on the job.

“We’ve spoken to them in the last week or 10 days about how consistent we must be with our own performances.

“We have to put that consistency into our results. Sometimes you just have to find a way to win and, tonight, that’s what we did.

“We can now go into the festive period looking forward to the next game. At 2-2, we bounced back quickly. Good teams and good groups do that.

“Tonight, the lads who went on the pitch [the substitutes] really lifted their levels. That’s so important.”

READ MORE: Dom Hutchison urges Luton Town to prioritise stability under Jack Wilshere