Luton Town will play in the for the first time next season after edging out Coventry City 6-5 on penalties in the Championship Play-Off final on Saturday evening.
The match finished 1-1 after normal time, thanks to the Hatters going ahead through Jordan Clark in the first half before Gustavo Hamer equalised for the Sky Blues in the second half.
The goals matched the differing dominance of the two teams over 90 minutes, with Luton firmly in charge in the first 45, before Coventry were notably improved after the interval.
Both struggled to create anything in extra-time which led to penalty kicks, where Luton got over the line, scoring all six of their penalties before Coventry’s Fankaty Dabo sent his over the crossbar.
It was nerveless stuff from Luton’s penalty takers Carlton Morris, Joe Taylor, Marvelous Nakamba, Jordan Clark, Luke Berry, Dan Potts, with Coventry scoring five before Dabo blazed his into the stands.
It is a stunning achievement from Rob Edwards and his side to reach the Premier League for the first time and return to the top flight for the first time since 1992.
The Hatters were in the Conference as recently as 2014 and were only promoted from League Two to League One in 2018 in what has been a remarkable return to the big time from real depths.
Luton had the ball in the net just five minutes into the game as Gabriel Osho bundled in a Tom Lockyer header, but the former was judged to be offside.
Lockyer was at the centre of a scary moment just a few minutes later when he went down and lay still on the pitch, with no contact from any other player or even anyone near him.
There were extremely concerning moments as the Luton man received treatment on the pitch but he was conscious as he was stretchered off and was taken to hospital, with a diagnosis yet to come.
Luton released a statement midway through the game which read: ‘We are able to report that after collapsing on the pitch, Tom Lockyer has been taken to hospital for further tests.
‘He is responsive and talking to his family, who are with him.’
Steve Lockyer, Tom’s dad, posted a message on Twitter after the game confirming that his son was doing well in hospital and able to celebrate.
It could have been very tough for Luton to keep their concentration after the troubling incident, but they were much the better team for the rest of the first half, taking the lead on 23 minutes through Jordan Clark.
There was superb work from Elijah Adebayo on the left as he got on the end of a long ball and burst into the penalty box before finding Clark with a pull-back, who beat his man and powered a finish home at the near post.
The score was still 1-0 at half-time and Coventry will not have been too disappointed with that scoreline after a very underwhelming performance from them.
The Hatters could well have been further ahead as Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu had a decent chance and the ball was in the net again but disallowed for a Adebayo handball.
Matty Godden came on for Jamie Allen in a Coventry half-time substitute and things were immediately different, with the Sky Blues looking for more dangerous after the break.
On 66 minutes the game was level as Coventry’s improvement paid off through Gustavo Hamer.
It was a really nice move from back to front which unleashed Viktor Gyokeres down the left flank, he powered towards the penalty area and saw Hamer advancing inside, laid the ball into him and the former Feyenoord man finished smartly with his in-step.
Hamer was forced off injured shortly after and that didn’t help Coventry’s rhythm as Luton responded to the setback of conceding well.
There were half chances at both ends but neither side could strike before the game went to extra-time.
There were tired legs and nervy minds in extra-time, with chances few and far between. Luton’s Clark tried to buy a penalty in the first half but only bought himself a yellow card from Michael Oliver.
It looked like Luton had snatched it late on when Coventry substitute Jonathan Panzo inexplicably gave the ball away to allow Hatters sub Joe Taylor to burst in on goal and find the back of the net.
However, as Taylor pinched the ball from Panzo it flicked up and hit his hand, so the strike was ruled out.
The game went to penalties and there were 11 perfect spot-kicks before Dabo sent his over the crossbar to send Luton into the top flight.
, .
, and .
