Once the dust settled, three things became clear. Luton honors the first division and we deserve to stay awake; Ross Barkley is a completely resurgent central midfielder; and games like this are the reason England's top flight makes so much money from overseas TV rights.
At the end of an often chaotic, always compelling afternoon, Eddie Howe's hopes of leading Newcastle on another European adventure next season were dashed, Chiedozie Ogbene had given a masterclass in right-wing play and Barkley was celebrating another reaffirmation of an imperious talent for many years. The thought had vanished forever.
Meanwhile, Dan Burn had stressed that he is no longer the answer for Newcastle at left-back.
“It's hard, really hard, to sum up my emotions,” Howe said. “There was a lot of good on our part, but also a lot of bad.”
Rob Edwards echoed similar sentiments. “Very mixed emotions,” said the Luton coach, whose team led 4-2 at one point. “It was a great game and I am proud of our performance. We were brave and in the end we could have won. But we are not the finished article and we are going to make mistakes. “Sometimes I felt bad, sometimes I felt euphoria, but I think one point was a fair result.”
With Alexander Isak failing a late fitness test and Callum Wilson not yet ready for the full 90 minutes, Newcastle started without a recognized centre-forward. That didn't stop them from taking an early lead when a superb pass from Lewis Miley and a cross from Kieran Trippier preceded a fierce first-time shot unleashed by Sean Longstaff that evaded the reach of Thomas Kaminski.
Not that Luton buoyed by Tuesday's 4-0 win over Brighton, they were about to give up. The visitors had started brightly with the exciting Ogbene repeatedly evading Burn and quickly drew level when Barkley's floating free-kick was headed towards goal, allowing Gabriel Osho to rise above all the attackers and head past Martin Dubravka.
As entertaining as Luton's set-piece specialists undoubtedly were, their high defensive line often carried such a high risk that Newcastle sensed the opportunity. Sure enough, they quickly regained their lead when Anthony Gordon accelerated past that baseline, showing Osho a clean pair of heels.
The winger-turned-emergency centre-forward soon tested Kaminski with a shot that the goalkeeper could barely parry, letting it bounce kindly into the path of the advancing Longstaff. Cue another awesome finish. Not to mention a very passable impersonation of Frank Lampard in his prime from a midfielder who harbors hopes of an England call-up.
Unwilling to be upstaged, Barkley delighted in suggesting that life begins at 30, not only pulling many strings from deep but scoring Luton's second equaliser. Appropriately, he began the move which concluded with a shot into an empty net after Dubravka, going wide with his left foot, could only parry Alfie Doughty's shot.
Until then, Elijah Adebayo, the hero of Luton's hat-trick against Brighton, had been a relatively peripheral figure, but the striker's clever decoy maneuver distracted the underwhelming Sven Botman and company to the point where Barkley could pick his spot.
Howe replaced the injured Gordon with Wilson at half-time, but before he could make an impact, Luton won a penalty awarded via video assistant referee review after Ogbene had been stopped by Burn.
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Carlton Morris stepped up and beat Dubravka only to be ordered by Bramall to retake the kick he had received too quickly. Showing commendable poise, Morris converted again and, this time, the penalty counted.
Burn's concession of possession prompted Barkley to pass the ball to Adebayo to fire into the bottom corner.
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Howe responded by introducing Tino Livramento and Harvey Barnes. Duly encouraged, Trippier brought the score back to 3-4 thanks to a fine volley and Barnes marked his return from an injury suffered in September by heading in a loose ball with his left foot.
Luton were reeling but still came close to winning 10 minutes into stoppage time when Barkley's lofted pass preceded Ogbene volleying straight at Dubravka.
“That's the way we have to play,” Edwards said. “It wasn't perfect, but we were right a lot more than we were wrong.”
