Luton Town 1-2 Leeds United: Matt Pearson scores a late own goal to give Leeds the win
- Published
Luton goalkeeper James Shea made a series of fine saves as the Hatters looked to end a four-game losing streak
Leeds moved up to second in the Championship as Matt Pearson's late own goal condemned Luton to a fifth successive league defeat.
The decisive moment in a tight game arrived just into added time when Pearson put Mateusz Klich's cross into his own net after a touch from Patrick Bamford.
The win sees Leeds extend their unbeaten run to six games and leapfrog Preston North End in the table.
Bamford opened the scoring for his sixth goal of the season from Ben White's through ball.
The home side were aggrieved, however, as Izzy Brown looked to have been fouled before the swift Leeds counter-attack.
But James Collins' powerful header from Brown's right-wing cross looked to have earned Luton a point just two minutes after Bamford had scored.
Hatters goalkeeper James Shea was the star of the first half, making decent saves to deny Bamford and Tyler Roberts, while the former also hit the post.
The Hatters should have left with a point, though, with Dan Potts heading a gilt-edged chance wide from the final passage of play before Luton slumped to another loss.
Luton Town boss Graeme Jones:
"I don't think I'm a biased manager, I think I try to be fair and try to be subjective with things.
"In my opinion, I've looked at the clips back, it's a foul on Izzy, taking his legs from him.
"We're playing Leeds United, the gulf is already big enough and when you don't get decisions like that going your way and your team has given absolutely everything they've got, it's a difficult one to swallow.
"These (Leeds) are the best team in the league, I've analysed them enough to say that. I see them cutting through teams and I mean at will, and they had more shots than us, they had possession, but we were always in the game, and that's the satisfying aspect."
Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa:
"We had 15 chances to score, I don't link the possible foul with the possibility of scoring, you can interpret it like that, but the possible foul was 80 metres away from the opponent's goal.
"In those 80 metres, happened a lot of things that aren't linked with the beginning of the action and the development and the finish of the chance, but I can understand the opponent and maybe the supporters can link both situations.
"I think the result was fair, it was a good performance from the team.
"In the first half, it was a little bit easier for us, but in the second half we had to fight a little bit more.
"It's very difficult to win if you don't fight you don't have a good condition to play, and if you want to win, you have to right, if not you cannot."