Luton Town vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
Kenilworth RoadAttendance9,839.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers at Kenilworth Road as Carlton Morris and Reece Burke earned victory for the Hatters on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday 17 September 2022 18:27, UK
Second-half goals from Carlton Morris and Reece Burke saw Luton finally register a first home win of the season at the seventh attempt when beating Blackburn 2-0 at Kenilworth Road.
Morris volleyed home Jordan Clark's cross before centre-back Burke produced a moment of magic to make the game safe.
The visitors should have led early on when leading scorer Ben Brereton Diaz escaped the home defence, as hesitant keeper Ethan Horvath was out just in time to get enough on the shot with Dan Potts clearing off the line.
In the 19th minute, the recalled Henri Lansbury almost took matters into his own hands, breaking through a few challenges before shooting straight at Thomas Kaminski when he had more time.
A first half very low on attacking quality saw Rovers midfielder Ryan Hedges go closest on 40 minutes, his curler drifting tamely wide of the target.
The second period picked up immediately though, as Luton got themselves on the front foot from the start and did not look like taking a step back.
Midfielder Clark wasted a glorious chance when he turned down a shooting opportunity from inside the box, trying to find Cauley Woodrow instead, before he then did go for goal but dragged a far tougher chance wide on his left foot.
However, he was the architect of Luton's opening goal on 58 minutes as, picking up the ball on the right, his cross was met by Morris who cushioned a sidefooted volley beyond Kaminski for his sixth in six games.
Rather than settle for the lead, Luton went for a second to kill the game off. Clark tried his luck from distance, forcing Kaminski to turn behind at full stretch, and the ball would not drop to Woodrow from Morris's header as his volley was well blocked.
It was 2-0 on 67 minutes though as Burke picked up a loose ball midway inside the Rovers half and the defender kept on going, curling a wonderful effort into the corner from 20 yards on his weaker left foot.
James Bree went close to sewing up the points, Kaminski keeping his low shot out at the second attempt, as Rovers started to cause a minor threat in the closing stages, Hedges blasting wide from the edge of the box on 71 minutes.
The visitors should have made it a nervy final few moments when George Hirst raced into the area but, as his team-mates had done previously, rashly fired into the stands as Luton could finally leave Kenilworth Road victorious.
Luton's Nathan Jones: "It was a wonderful performance, especially the second half. We've actually not scored in the second half at home (in the league), so we've really put a big emphasis on it. They've had to come back from midweek where we weren't great but we still should have won the game in terms of a late penalty (appeal, against Coventry), so they've had to cope with quite a lot.
"But today they were magnificent, second half we were aggressive, we pressed, we looked a threat and should have had more. Jordan Clark passed it to Cauley (Woodrow) when he should have shot, Cauley has a volley, we've had real, real good opportunities as well where we could have made it more. But it's a wonderful performance and needed. I'm really proud of that and it's good to go into the international break with a win."
Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson: "I hate losing, players hate losing, fans hate that. It was a disappointing result, we knew before we arrived it would be a difficult place to come to.
"Looking at the first half we created some opportunities and probably had the best chance of the game. We had a decent first half, spoke about it at half-time, what we did well and what to expect and in the second half, those things we did well in the first half, we didn't do that well in the second. Overall I'm disappointed with the result and the challenge for us is to be less inconsistent, more stable, less bumps in the road."
