Luton Town 3-1 Norwich City – Championship leaders beaten well on Kenilworth Road

Luton Town celebrated the return of some of its fans by consigning leader Norwich City to a first loss in 11 championship games.

Three of the goals came within seven minutes of the first half when George Moncur and Matty Pearson scored on either side of the injury-struck Emiliano Buendia penalty fortuitously awarded to Norwich.

But Luton then closed all three points early in the second half with an equally soft penalty, converted by James Collins, for handball against an unfortunate Grant Hanley.

It puts Jones’ team within four points of play-off spots, while Norwich remains top, as Watford and Reading squandered the opportunity to beat the Canaries, both away from home.

The Hatters, with a 4-0 club in Cardiff on Saturday, had scored just three times in their previous five home games. But it took them only 47 minutes to reach that level of productivity.

Scoring three times in a league game for the first time since last season’s final game, they matched their 3-1 League Cup win over Norwich in their first game this season on September 5.

Luton took the lead in the 15th minute when Moncur cut from the right to place a curling iron under his right foot on the post. Yet within four minutes, Norwich was controversially level from point of view.

James Shea was judged to knock down Przemyslaw Placheta, as the Luton goalkeeper was booked for the incursion of his line that caused the Norwich man to spread into the area.

Buendía then demanded further punishment, sending Shea down the wrong track when his right foot effort found the lower left corner.

But, just three minutes later, Luton was in front again when defender Pearson headed a cross from Rhys Norrington-Davies.

A minute after the start of the second half, Norwich defender Hanley fell awkwardly under Collins’ attention, but he was harshly judged to have handled the ball while lying on deck and referee Darren England awarded his second penalty of the night. .

Collins duly sent the resulting penalty for his fourth home goal this season at Kenilworth Road, all of which have been against Norwich, having achieved a hat-trick in that League Cup tie in September, when his three goals that day all came in the last 11 minutes.

Luton Town manager Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties:

“They had a lot of possession because they are the best team in the league, but we deserved it. We seemed aggressive and we could have gone through one or two more.

“The fans are very helpful. We were miles away from where we needed to be in Cardiff on Saturday, but what a great way to recover. The pace of work was phenomenal.

“Saturday was the worst performance I’ve ever had as coach of Luton, but it was probably the best. I’m very happy with that performance.”

Norwich City boss Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Norfolk:

“There were key decisions against us, but I don’t want to think about that. Maybe the referee was influenced by his fans.

“Grant Hanley was fouled. His hand was on the ball, but he had been fouled before he fell.

“We didn’t have a lot of offensive players, so it was difficult to create chances. Our three forwards are injured. But conceding three goals was the problem.”