Late double sees Luton slide to home defeat against Reading

Luton Town slid to defeat as two late goals helped Reading to a 3-2 away win at Kenilworth Road.

The Hatters had fallen behind to an early goal by Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, but Luton did come back to lead through goals by Nigel Lonwijk and George Saville.

Ehibhatiomhan had other ideas, however, scoring two goals in the last ten minutes to grab his first EFL hat-trick as Reading charged back to win 3-2.

Defeat hinders Luton’s hopes of closing in on the play-offs, with Jack Wilshere’s side now 8 points off the last of League One’s play-off places after they suffered a first home defeat since mid-October.

Luton had arrived on a high after beating Northampton in midweek in the EFL Trophy to book their place in next month’s final, but it would be a bad start on their return to league action as Reading scored inside five minutes.

A long ball had seemingly been in place for Isaiah Jones to clear, but the Luton wing-back’s attempted header went backwards for Ehibhatiomhan to hold off Kal Naismith and poke the ball past Josh Keeley.

Josh Keeley would make a good save to keep out the Royals’ Kamari Doyle, but Luton would cause the Royals some bother, with Devante Cole missing from close range while Jordan Clark saw one strike blocked and another hit the bar.

Reading nearly opened the door for Luton when goalkeeper Joel Pereira punched a corner towards his own goal and had to be bailed out by a covering defender, before Keely made two saves to keep out dangerous strikes by Doyle.

An open half would have its second goal in the final minutes of the first half, with Luton finding an equaliser as Lonwijk turned in Emilio Lawrence’s cross.

Eight minutes after the break, Luton turned things around to move ahead, as Clark’s corner was headed in by Saville.

Luton did have chances to make it 3-1, with Nahki Wells have a deflected strike hit the bar before Liam Walsh hit a strike over.

In the final stages, however, Luton’s lead would disappear as Reading found an 81st minute equaliser. Substitute Matt Ritchie played in a dangerous cross for Ehibhatiomhan, and the Reading striker headed home to grab his brace.

Three minutes later, things got worse for Luton as Reading scored again. Kal Naismith dallied on the ball in the box, and Ritchie teed up Ehibhatiomhan to roll in his hat-trick clinching strike.

Luton offered little in response as they slumped to defeat, with the Hatters now on a run of five games without a win in League One and seeing their play-off dreams disappear. The team now face another pair of big away days, as they visit Doncaster and Wycombe this week.