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Luton climb out of drop zone after Adebayo hat-trick stuns Brighton
Whatever happens during the rest of the season and wherever Luton find themselves playing football next year, they should never forget this night; if they do somehow come closer to perfection it will be a sight to behold.
“Luton played one of the best games of the season,” was the verdict of a visibly weary Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi. It had been a difficult watch for the man in the visitors’ dugout.
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Less than six months ago, in their first Premier League game, Rob Edwards’s team were taught a lesson in top-flight football in a comprehensive 4-1 defeat at Brighton. Revenge on home soil was as sweet as it was emphatic, with the south-coast visitors blown away from the first peep of the referee’s whistle.
Within 19 seconds, Luton were ahead. By 2min 17sec, that lead was doubled. Not since 1998 had a Premier League side scored two goals so quickly at the start of a match.
But this was no fleeting gust; for 90 minutes Luton’s onslaught did not relent, with Elijah Adebayo appearing to channel the best of Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé in one of the finest performances from any top-flight striker this campaign.
His hat‑trick – the first scored by a Luton player in the Premier League – mauled their European football‑playing opponents and helped his side climb out of the relegation zone in the process.
Most people thought Luton would have long been dead and buried by the time the winter ice thawed on this Premier League campaign. Yet with February just one sunset away, Kenilworth Road resounded to the sounds of “we are staying up” sung by a home support who had started the night with a hero’s welcome for Tom Lockyer on his return to the ground for a first pre‑match wander since his cardiac arrest last month.
“It was a good night wasn’t it?” said Edwards. “We delivered a really great performance. I’m really proud of us. You try to start aggressively and on the front foot. But it was important we kept our foot down and did the right things. We were relentless. The gameplan was right and they committed to it. The lads were excellent tonight.”
With each passing minute this evolved into the type of performance Luton fans would never have dared dream of when they first earned a place in the Premier League. The confidence on display was astounding. No, more than that: the sheer arrogance. Brighton – a side who have beaten Ajax, Marseille and AEK Athens this season – could not lay a glove on the hosts.
No one better epitomised Luton’s brilliance than a career-high performance from Adebayo, who was playing in League Two three years ago. Every time the ball entered his orbit, he looked like a man possessing such conviction that he could part the Red Sea should he so wish.
His aspirations were suitably lower key on this chilly Tuesday evening, content instead to merely terrorise the Brighton defence.
His first goal came almost directly from kick-off, from which Chiedozie Ogbene delivered a looping cross, Carlton Morris nodded goalwards and Adebayo helped it on its way.
Ogbene hastily added another when poking past a horribly out-of-position Jason Steele, before the Adebayo show continued.
Just before half-time, he carved open the opposition defenders when combining beautifully with Ross Barkley before stroking into the bottom corner. He then capped off a memorable outing to nod home Alfie Doughty’s corner from a couple of yards and soon headed off for a standing ovation.
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“Through my whole career, you dream of nights like this, playing non‑league,” Adebayo said. “For many of us who have been on such a journey, we thrive and wish for nights like this. I couldn’t be happier for the group of lads that are in there, who have been on an incredible journey.”
Defeat means Brighton, who lost their star forward João Pedro to injury late on, have won just three Premier League games since September and have failed to score in their past three league outings.
Having not managed a shot on target until the 77th minute, the final whistle brought blessed relief. “We did not play,” De Zerbi said. “It was a blackout. We have to remember this day.
“We played badly, not one player played well, and our substitutes too. Everyone has to take responsibility. This defeat is very, very, very tough. I’m sure we played the worst game of my time.”
