Luton Town lost but they did so in such appealing style that it was extremely easy to appreciate why Nathan Jones’s side are winning so many friends this season. Although two goals from Ayoze Pérez and another from Jonjo Shelvey had virtually booked Newcastle United’s fourth-round passage by half-time, the League Two leaders refused to surrender and scored, hit the woodwork and had a goal controversially disallowed during a highly entertaining second period.
If Rafael Benítez will not have found that defensively flawed 45 minutes quite as diverting as neutrals, it ultimately proved a mildly restorative win for a home side in urgent need of a respite from recent Premier League travails. “I’m pleased with the first half,” said Benítez. “But we were a little bit relaxed in the second half and it made it more difficult.”
Jones was left to rue a slightly tentative opening period. “If only we’d been more ourselves and imposed ourselves early on,” said Luton’s manager. “But the second half was different. We scored a second goal which we thought was onside and could have made things far more interesting if it had stood, so there’s a tinge of disappointment. We didn’t come here to park the bus, we pressed them high and had our moments. Rafa showed us massive respect by playing his strongest available side, so we’re taking lots of positives.”
Significantly the only youngster fielded by Newcastle’s manager was the debutant Freddie Woodman, the hero of England’s Under 20s’ World Cup triumph last summer. While Woodman had a limited amount to do, he survived a few slightly nervy moments, most notably when directing Ciaran Clark’s back-pass to a Luton player.
At the other end, Marek Stech looked mortified after spilling Dwight Gayle’s free-kick and permitting Pérez to stab home from point-blank range. Until then Newcastle had dominated possession but failed to raise much of a tempo while persistently wasting their final balls.
As befits a born-again Christian, Jones is inherently optimistic but even he must have feared the worst when Pérez doubled the home advantage from close range after Stech parried Gayle’s header following Matt Ritchie’s cross.
Once Shelvey concluded a fine attacking move involving Pérez and Gayle by sweeping a shot past Luton’s goalkeeper, things threatened to become embarrassingly one-sided. By then, though, Jamaal Lascelles, Newcastle’s key defender, had limped off with a minor adductor strain and, without him, the home defence lost concentration.
Such reduced focus helped Danny Hylton reduce the deficit at the outset of an Arctic second half which began amid hail and sleet. When Woodman was forced to make a clearance under pressure the ball fell to Glen Rea who played Hylton in. All that remained was for the centre-forward to round the keeper and stroke a right-foot shot beyond the backpedalling Clark and into the empty net.
Hylton, by now posing a somewhat fazed Isaac Hayden – on for Lascelles – all sorts of problems, thought he had swiftly scored again but his curling shot into a bottom corner was ruled out for that contentious offside. No matter; Luton were renascent and might have seriously unnerved Newcastle had Olly Lee not seen a dangerous free-kick deflect off the wall and fly fractionally wide.
The son of Newcastle old boy Rob Lee, Olly was soon joined by his younger brother Elliot from the bench. That will have delighted the mini bus-load of Lee family members who had travelled up from Essex to watch the boys play at the ground once graced by their father’s midfield excellence. Happily both junior Lees played their part in a mini Luton revival which made for an exciting second half, with 47,000 fans holding their collective breath as Elliot bent a free-kick against the bar.
“There’s an element of disappointment,” said Jones. “But we’re in a good place at the moment.”
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