Iraola’s side looked beaten when they returned to the dressing room at half-time with Luton holding a commanding 3-0 lead, which appeared set to lift the Hatters out of the Premier League relegation zone
Within give minutes of the second period Dominic Solanke’s clever turn and finish pulled one back for the hosts, and after that it was one-way traffic as two more followed in another 14 minutes to pull them level. Antoine Semenyo then completed the incredible turnaround in added time.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Iraola said he had told his players there was a chance they were still in the game during his half-time team talk, before sending them back out well ahead of their visitors for the second 45 minutes.
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He said: “We wanted to play as soon as possible, we ended the first half with bad feelings. The first half was not so disastrous, but they were really clinical – every time they had a shot, they scored. We didn’t finish so well.
“Even at half-time, we talked about [getting something]. Luton are a very brave team, they will continue to press high, counter, they will give up chances.
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“We said it would be difficult not to concede any more goals, but we will have chances and we will put them under pressure.
“Once we score the first one, everyone starts believing, they start believing they could not win the game, and everything goes from there.
“Dominic’s goal was key. We talked about scoring one quick, we are quite a good physical team, we finish games well, and probably they could struggle. Scoring quite early was good for us, and then everything went on our side in the second half – the opposite to the first half.”
Edwards: Blame me for capitulation
Luton manager Rob Edwards believed his side should have seen the game out and only have themselves to blame for throwing away a three-goal lead against Bournemouth.
The mood in the Luton camp was a far cry from their last game, when Cauley Woodrow’s 96th-minute equaliser stole a point from Crystal Palace on Saturday.
That was a point gained for the Hatters but manager Rob Edwards, who cut a dejected figure in his post-match interview with Sky Sports, pointed to the repeated capitulation of his side who lost despite leading for the fourth time in 12 games.
He said: “I seem to be saying similar things quite often; we put ourselves in a brilliant position with some great play, a brilliant performance. The warning signs were there at times in the first half.
“I don’t want to make excuses, I’m not going to. We had enough quality, endeavour and legs to go 3-0 up and we’ve got to be able to then do enough to drag a result out in that second half.
“We gave them the encouragement of getting an early goal back on 50 minutes, where we could do better with the build-up to the set play, but we’ve got to defend that moment better. We gave them encouragement, the crowd got up, and it’s back to the same thing.
“We were the ones to blame, me. I’m not going to accept that because we’ve got lots of injuries [we should lose], I believe in this group of players. We were good enough to go 3-0 up – and we should have seen it out.”
Luton have another chance to escape the relegation zone when fourth-bottom Nottm Forest visit Kenilworth Road on Saturday, giving Edwards added belief their hopes of survival are still well intact.
“The pressure will build, of course,” he said. “But we’ve got to learn to accept that, deal with it, and got to try to bring the best out of us.
“If we win on Saturday we’re out of the bottom three, so I have to believe. We’re not out of it by any stretch of the imagination. We showed a lot of good things tonight, it hurts to come out and talk and try to make sense of it all. But we have to believe, and I do.”
