Luton Town vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Kenilworth RoadAttendance9,408.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Luton Town and Preston at Kenilworth Road as two goals from Luke Berry either side of Fred Onyedinma in the first half steered the Hatters to a big win.
Wednesday 16 March 2022 23:03, UK
Luke Berry scored twice as Luton returned to the Championship play-off places with a 4-0 victory over Preston at Kenilworth Road.
Fred Onyedinma was also on target while Bambo Diaby's own goal sealed a convincing victory for the Hatters.
Although the visitors looked to have settled quickly, it was Luton who took the lead in the eighth minute when James Bree's cross was not cleared properly and the unmarked Berry was able to sidefoot into the bottom corner.
Town were forced into a change after 23 minutes when Reece Burke appeared to pull his hamstring and had to go off, with Onyedinma coming on.
Town stopper James Shea saved impressively from Cameron Archer, but even with a makeshift defence, the Hatters managed to extend their advantage after 28 minutes when Andrew Hughes gave away a cynical free-kick on the right by tripping Onyedinma.
Bree sent over the free-kick which was converted by Onyedinma from close range, although Peter Kioso had initially wheeled away claiming the strike as his own.
Harry Cornick went for the spectacular, curling well, well wide from 25 yards, with Preston midfielder Ali McCann also off target from a similar distance, never troubling Shea.
Luton then moved 3-0 ahead in the 42nd minute with a slick move through the middle of the pitch started by Jordan Clark.
He found Elijah Adebayo who fed Cornick and his low cross was turned home audaciously by Berry for his second of the night and seventh of the season.
Luton almost had a fourth when Onyedinma did superbly to send over a cross from the right and Amari'i Bell headed goalwards, with Daniel Iversen saving well to his left.
Preston top-scorer Emil Riis Jakobsen fired ambitiously wide to complete a pretty awful first half for Ryan Lowe's side, as early in the second period, Kioso again went close to his maiden Luton goal, seeing a downward header from Bree's corner blocked and Adebayo stabbing the loose ball over.
Town did move further in front after 59 minutes when a quickfire break on the left saw Cornick find the advancing Bell whose cross-shot was parried by Iversen, but only straight against his own defender Diaby and into the net.
Adebayo put another header over via a deflection, but Preston should have pulled one back after 66 minutes, with half-time substitute Josh Murphy somehow firing wide from 10 yards when completely unmarked, while he also had another attempt collected by Shea at his near post.
Kioso was not far away once more in the closing stages, swivelling to fire past the post from another Bree corner as Luton put their disappointing defeat against QPR on Sunday behind them at the first attempt to move up to fifth in the table.
Luton's Nathan Jones: "If Bournemouth don't go up, if Fulham don't go up, it's a disaster for them. QPR have spent massive money, Sheffield United have spent massive money, we've got the lowest budget in the league, with nine games to go we're riding the wave. I'm not going to get sacked if we don't get promoted, but we want to try and achieve something and we believe we're good enough to achieve something.
"Sides come here that are expected to be in and around it and we've been more than a match for them, and tonight, against a real good Preston side, let's not forget that, but we've been excellent tonight. Now to maintain that constantly is difficult with a hectic schedule, and people are having to go through the absolute mire. But we're just showing real, real resilience, real quality, but a desire to win football games and that's wonderful, that's what I'm so proud of."
Preston's Ryan Lowe: "I didn't see it coming at all, they were in fantastic spirits, they trained well, I just didn't see it. I can maybe blame one or two things along the way, I'm the manager, I have to take responsibility, I pick the team, but we gave them everything to go out and execute a game-plan that they've executed for the last 17 or 18 games.
"It's one that needs to be put to bed quickly, I'll analyse, I'll look at it and get the lads to look at it, they're a good group and it's hurting them in there. The only down-side is we don't have a game on Saturday to put it right, so we'll have a think about how we go about it but I just don't want to see a performance like that again."
