Carlton Morris scored a late winner as relegation-threatened Luton Town came back from a goal down to claim a dramatic 2-1 win over Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday.
United States captain Tyler Adams was left out of the Bournemouth squad a week after he made his first start for the club in a 2-1 win over Everton, having returned from a long layoff following hamstring surgery.
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Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said Adams “woke up two days ago with back spasms and he wasn’t available” against Luton.
“It is nothing related to the hamstring,” Iraola said.
Luton’s first win since January took them to 25 points, the same figure as 17th-placed Nottingham Forest who have played a game less. Bournemouth remained 12th with 41 points after suffering their first loss since February.
“The character we showed, we found the result when it was really important to do so,” Luton Town manager Rob Edwards told BBC Sport.
“I feel we’ve had one and a half really difficult games against Bournemouth. The Tom [Lockyer] situation first time and then we were 3-0 up and lost 4-3. It’s a nice feeling to turn that round and grind that win.”
Bournemouth came close to taking the lead early, with Marcus Tavernier and Justin Kluivert both hitting the woodwork within the first 15 minutes.
Tavernier finally got the breakthrough in the 52nd minute off Kluivert’s quick cross from the right. His left-footed shot from the edge of the box beat Luton keeper Thomas Kaminski to find the net near the far post.
But Luton struck back in the 73rd minute as Jordan Clark ran up from the halfway line, crossed the ball to Luke Berry on the edge of the box who sent a pass through for Clark to find the bottom right corner, scoring his first goal of the season.
The hosts’ comeback was complete in the 90th minute when Cauley Woodrow‘s long cross from the left found Morris perfectly positioned in the six yard box for a quick finish.
Bournemouth boss Iraola said windy conditions at Kenilworth Road put them at a disadvantage in the second half.
“It affected the game. It was very good for us in the first half and very bad in the second half,” he said.
“We weren’t finding the spaces with the long balls like in the first half.”
Bournemouth host Manchester United next Saturday, while Luton visit defending champions Manchester City.
“I’ll probably start losing sleep about Man City and trying to think about how to stop them,” Edwards said.
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.