Luton Town relegated from Championship after final day defeat by West Brom

Luton Town have been relegated from the Championship after a 5-3 defeat at West Bromwich Albion.

Defeat at the Hawthorns combined with a draw for Hull City at Portsmouth meant Luton suffered back-to-back relegations, having dropped out of the Premier League 12 months ago. The Hatters finished the season on 49 points, level with the Tigers but they were relegated on goal difference.

Victory in the West Midlands would’ve secured Luton survival, but braces by Tom Fellows and Callum Styles along with a Daryl Dike goal instead left the Hatters at the mercy of results elsewhere. Millenic Alli had scored to make it 1-1 early on, but Jordan Clark and Alli’s goals came after West Brom had already bagged their five.

Luton fans were left checking score apps in the hope that Portsmouth could score a late goal to beat Hull City at Fratton Park. But such a goal wouldn’t be scored, leaving Luton in the relegation zone when the musical chairs stopped.

The Hatters will be playing third tier football next season for the first time since 2019, becoming only the third team in the last 15 years to suffer back-to-back drops from Premier League and Championship after Wolves in 2011-13 and Sunderland in 2016-18.

Having won their previous three games before the season finale, Luton were in a tight cluster of teams hoping to avoid following relegated Cardiff and the practically relegated Plymouth. They were a point above Hull going into the game, but level on points with Derby and Preston and a single point behind Stoke.

Against a West Brom side that could no longer reach the play-offs and who had failed to beat either Derby or Cardiff in their last two, Luton had hopes they could pull off the win they needed.

Things got off to a bad start, however, when they trailed after seven minutes. Fellows was able to cut inside after collecting the ball and he duly squeezed a shot beyond Thomas Kaminski.

But Luton trailed for all of two minutes. Alli picked up Thelo Aasgaard’s pass, twisted away from Kyle Bartley and drilled a fine strike into the back of the net.

As the half continued, news filtered through that Hull and Preston had taken the lead in their games, meaning Luton needed a response to preserve their advantage.

Instead, things went in reverse after two goals in three minutes saw West Brom take control of the contest.

First, striker Dike scored his first Championship goal in two injury-hit years when the striker headed in Styles’ cross, before Dike laid the ball off for Fellows to fire past Kaminski. That strike made it 3-1, and left Luton very much at the mercy of results elsewhere.

A little bit of hope resurfaced when Portsmouth equalised in the opening minutes of the second half, which could have spurned Luton on to try and pull the game back to 3-3.

That however would not happen, as two goals by Styles in four minutes saw West Brom seize even further control of the contest.

Styles made it 4-1 when he turned in Darnell Furlong’s cross from close range, and a few moments later, the same man made it 5-1 after his strike deflected in off Aasgaard.

Luton would manage to close the gap down from 5-1 to 5-3 in a chaotic game as first Clark and then Alli scored fine goals, while they came very close to making it 5-4 as substitute Tahith Chong saw a strike saved.

But eyes were very much focused on whether Portsmouth could complete a turnaround and beat Hull at Fratton Park. Had that happened, it would’ve confirmed Luton’s survival by a single point.

A winner for Portsmouth would not come, however, confirming Luton fell into the relegation zone on goal difference and meant the pain of a second relegation in a row was confirmed, with Luton facing the task of rebuilding again in the third tier of English football.