Rob Edwards said he felt “exhausted” after his Luton team scored the winning goal in the 90th minute to come from behind to beat Bournemouth and take a big step in the direction of first division survival.
Carlton Morris's goal at the death, headed in at the far post from substitute Cauley Woodrow's cross, capped a strong second-half performance by the home side and brought them within points of second-placed Nottingham Forest 17, and has one less game. Bournemouth They remained in 12th place with 41 points after suffering their first defeat since February.
That footnote seemed insignificant in the end as the stadium shook with the euphoria of a first league win since Brighton were defeated here at the end of January.
“I'm pretty exhausted,” Edwards said. “It has been a difficult period and will continue to be so. It feels great. It's difficult to win a Premier League game, especially for us. We have to find more in the remaining games.
“We put pressure on the boys after (losing to) Tottenham and Arsenal, but I thought we deserved it. “We showed character and quality after losing 1-0.”
Bournemouth dominated the first half and hit the woodwork twice, first when James Tavernier's free kick hit a post and then again when Justin Kluivert hit the same post with a low shot.
Luton were lackluster and showed little in attack, but emerged after the break with renewed life and went close through Morris, who pulled off two good saves from goalkeeper Neto.
However, they fell behind almost immediately: Tavernier took the ball from Kluivert in a central position and, after letting it run through his body, launched it into the corner.
At that point Luton could have conceded, but instead they found a new fight. Jordan Clark tied it in the 73rd minute, finishing off a play he had started with a powerful run and finishing the ball for the first time.
A point might have been fair, but Morris found Woodrow's cross at the death to clip the three.
Edwards said: “It's big. It's difficult at the moment with the number of key players missing. But that's why I love those guys over there. They have given us everything, they have worked hard.
“Jordan Clark, who scored his first goal in the Premier League today, is like many of our boys who have fought very hard throughout their football career so far to get here. They don't want to give this up.
“It is clear that just because we won today's game we are not out of it. “There is a long way to go, but we are still in the fight.”
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Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola, who had seen his team win four out of five in the League, reflected on a game that got away from them after the break.
“When you lose at the end, it's tough,” he said. “It has been quite the opposite in the last games we have played.
“We were comfortable during the first 60 minutes, but in the second half it was difficult to find the spaces that we had found in the first half.”
The coach added that the windy conditions put them at a disadvantage in the second half.
“It affected the game. We did very well in the first half and very badly in the second,” he stated. “We didn't find space with long balls like in the first half.”
Bournemouth will hope to bounce back when they host Manchester United next Saturday, while Luton await a terrifying visit from defending champions Manchester City.
“I'll probably start losing sleep over Manchester City and try to think of how to stop them,” Edwards said.
