Luton Town caused a pre-season upset after beating Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1.
Perhaps this result was on the cards when the Seagulls named a side that compromised a mixture of first teamers and youth players.
Let Luton’s first goal, which came after just 33 seconds, came from a mistake of one of the biggest name first teamers and not one of the youngsters. Lewis Dunk, currently wanted by their rivals Crystal Palace, made a poor pass and Jack Marriott was able to latch onto it and and drilled the ball past Niki Maenpaa without even thinking about it.
Luton were hoping to get another goal and pressed forward to try and double their lead with Lewis Dunk doing a bit better to deal with a dangerous cross but couldn’t stop Cameron McGeehan from having a header which went just wide.
After his bright start from Luton, Brighton did finally get going and their talent did make sure they got close. Jiri Skalak, returning to the squad after being with the Czech Republic for Euro 2016, had his free kick smash off the wall and Steve Sidwell also saw a shot being blocked.
Eventually Brighton were able to score though when Skalak swung a free kick into the box and Dunk was able to make up for his mistake earlier in the game by heading in.
As the second half begun, Brighton did look to get the lead and came close when Elvis Manu, who is reportedly unhappy at the club and could be shipped out before the start of the season, saw his shot smash off the bar.
However it would be Luton who would get the lead and keep it until the end of the game when Alan Sheehan elected to take a short corner to pass the ball to Stephen O’Donnell. He then whipped the ball into the box and Marriott got his second to win the game.
The loss will be a disappointment to Brighton who wanted to use this pre-season to show they’d bounce back from their disappointing play off loss against Sheffield Wednesday. For Luton though, this is a statement of intent that this will be their season.
