Luton Town’s 31-year wait for a top flight victory is over.
Goals from skipper Tom Lockyer and Carlton Morris ended the torture which had extended for the opening months of this campaign, piling further misery upon Sean Dyche and Everton.
In his more optimistic moments, Luton manager Rob Edwards may have circled a trip to Goodison Park as the scene of an historic victory given the Merseyside club’s recent troubles.
Luton rode their luck early on, but their second half resilience fully merited the triumph as they sought to prove themselves worthy of Premier League football.
Everton’s prospective owners, meanwhile, were granted a full insight into Goodison Park’s recent calamities.
The top brass of 777 Partners - Josh Wander, Steve Pasko and Don Dransfield - ventured where the previous board members never dared to tread in the final months. On the front row of the directors box trying to make sense of a football club which, at times in its recent history, has become utterly incomprehensible.
The American investors have speciality in distressed business. They are in danger of inheriting a property condemned to the championship. This result means Everton have lost their first four home league games for the first time in 64 years.
Consecutive victories on the road hinted at better times for Dyche. Luton were regarded as the first of two winnable home games.
Indeed, the 777 representative would have found the stadium reasonably becalmed in an opening 15 minutes when Dyche’s side kept carving chances. Dwight McNeil, Idrissa Gueye and Amadou Onana all looked on in disbelief as efforts drifted inches wide.
At that juncture, a comfortable home win seemed a distinct possibility. But there are no certainties in the blue half of Merseyside.
Luton played their way into the game with a set-piece threat. Everton were warned when skipper Lockyer headed Alfie Doughty’s first corner narrowly over the bar.
With Doughty’s second corner, Carlton Morris connected to force Jordan Pickford to push the attempt against the crossbar. This time, Lockyer was in place to punish Ashley Young’s slack attempts to clear.
Everton momentarily collapsed, conceding a second on 32 minutes after Doughty’s free kick found Morris unmarked for a cool volleyed finish. Cue pandemonium, although unlike previous fan angst there was always a sense the scoring was not over.
The visitors were unstable under pressure and Dominic Calvert-Lewin reduced the deficit just before half-time after a lengthy VAR check.
That was Everton’s first home goal this season, only the second of their last 19 goals having been scored in front of their own fans.
The expectation was for a home barrage for the rest of the game. It never materialised, Luton keeper Thomas Kaminski protected despite the loss of two senior centre backs.
“The Town are staying up,” sang euphoric away fans.
They will see this as three points won against a relegation rival. That alone is a damning indictment of Everton’s predicament.
