Over to the lawyers. With both sets of players unable to land a blow that might have proved decisive in determining which – if either – of these clubs will play Championship football next season, it now falls to some of the country’s finest legal minds to dictate who will fill the relegation spots over the international break.
The verdict in Nottingham Forest’s hearing into financial breaches is expected to be announced imminently, which may well send the Midlands club plummeting from their current precarious position of safety.
“Points deduction, it’s coming for you,” the Kenilworth Road home fans bellowed at the final whistle, buoyed by the fight of Luke Berry’s late equaliser that was in stark contrast to the manner of their shocking subsidence just three days earlier when they became the first Premier League side in more than 20 years to lose after leading 3-0 at half-time.
Faced with almost an entire team of players unavailable through injury, this was the type of battling performance that gives ballast to Luton’s prospects of staying up. Yet extending their winless run to nine games in all competitions – since their thrillingly unexpected 4-0 thrashing of Brighton in late January – meant that it is perhaps in the lawyers’ hands that their best hopes of survival lie.
So, too, for a Nottingham Forest side that have still won only once in the top flight this calendar year.
“It’s been a challenging week to say the least,” the Luton manager, Rob Edwards, said. “It’s about how you react and that’s really important. This group has shown they’ve got so much character. No matter what’s thrown at us they will keep going and keep fighting.”
In a game containing a general lack of class befitting a relegation dogfight, it was little surprise that his counterpart, Nuno Espírito Santo, could not disguise his disappointment after his side failed to capitalise on an abundance of chances.
Luton were indebted to two excellent goalline clearances for allowing them to remain within touching distance until Berry’s equaliser in the final minute of normal time. First, Reece Burke appeared from nowhere to slide in and halt Divock Origi’s effort which seemed destined for the far corner of Thomas Kaminski’s goal. Then, Teden Mengi hared back to hook Anthony Elanga’s shot clear inches before it crossed the line.
Forest’s only joy had arrived soon after the half-hour when Morgan Gibbs-White – one of the game’s two standout players alongside Ross Barkley – crossed for Chris Wood, who could not fail to score from a couple of yards out. Murillo also came close to adding a spectacular second when he smashed a free-kick goalwards from deep inside his own half, forcing Kaminski to desperately backpedal before diving to tip the ball over his crossbar.
Yet for all their domination it felt like two points dropped by a side hoping to build a cushion for any points that might be deducted.
“We controlled the game,” Nuno said. “I think we should have finished the game earlier with the chances that we had. That’s why I’m a little bit frustrated. This is happening to us sometimes without putting the game to bed.
“I think we did enough to take the points today. But this is how it goes. We keep on going and keep on fighting. We have nine games to go and nine finals.”
For all their endeavour – and there was certainly plenty of it – Luton’s only real bright spark for much of the game was the resurgent Barkley, who made an excellent show of attempting to prove that Gareth Southgate was wrong to overlook him when announcing the latest England squad this week. A wayward drifter since the last of his international caps in October 2019, his combination of trickery, physicality and vision served as a reminder of the talent he once was and perhaps still is.
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Barkley struck the outside of the post with the third of three early long‑range efforts, and Luton did have the ball in the net just before half-time only to halt celebrations when Mengi was ruled to have controlled the cross with his arm before turning it in.
As an increasingly frantic home support directed their nervous energy at the referee Darren England – an unwarranted target – the match looked to be drifting away from the hosts until they produced an unexpected late sting. Burke nodded down a corner and Berry helped it on its way to add the Premier League to the Championship, League One and League Two as divisions in which he has scored for Luton.
“If we’d lost the game it would have been a blow,” Edwards said. “We can go into the [international] break with a little bit of a high even though we didn’t win the game.”
What position they will be in when they return remains to be seen.
