Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Luton Town: Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu winner downs 10-man Owls
- Published
Mpanzu scored his second goal of the season to lift the Hatters to ninth
Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu fired the winner to punish Joost van Aken's red card as Luton extended Sheffield Wednesday's poor home run with a deserved victory at Hillsborough.
Just three minutes after the Owls' Dutch defender was dismissed for a high tackle on Mpanzu, the Hatters midfielder took a touch before firing a cool finish into the bottom corner.
Luton had created by far the better opportunities even before the red card, with Danny Hylton's shot cleared off the line by Aden Flint in the first minute and Mpanzu shooting wide one-on-one.
Rhys Norrington-Davies and Ryan Tunnicliffe hit the woodwork for Luton late on as Wednesday, deducted 12 points for financial irregularities, remain bottom on -4 points and have not won at home in 10 games.
The Owls began their season brightly in their quest to chip away at their 12-point penalty but remain eight points from safety after a second home defeat in four days.
They were almost behind inside 20 seconds as Danny Hylton rounded Wednesday keeper Cameron Dawson, only for Flint to perform contortions on the goal-line to head his shot away.
Tom Lockyer fired inches off target for the Hatters and Mpanzu wasted a golden chance when he steered wide with only Dawson to beat after latching on to Elliot Lee's clever reverse pass.
Luton keeper Simon Sluga made a key double save from Van Aken and Callum Paterson after the break, while a Flint header from a Barry Bannan corner was ruled out for a foul as Wednesday's best spell of the game went unrewarded.
Van Aken's recklessly high challenge handed the momentum back to the visitors and Mpanzu's cool finish, after Wednesday failed to convincingly clear a cross, lifted Luton up to ninth.
Victory could have been more emphatic had Norrington-Davies' cross-shot and Tunnicliffe's effort not come back off crossbar and post respectively.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Gary Monk told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"I thought it was an even enough game. Second half we started to get on top without being a real threat and then they scored straight after the red card.
"I think the red card is soft. I don't think there's any intent or malice in it but if you raise your leg you give the referee a chance to make a decision.
"I thought we were started to get on top but our best spell came with 10 men - we had that urgency and speed and actually forced a lot of pressure. But the decisions in the final third need to get better."
Luton boss Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties:
"I'm delighted by the performance and especially the win. We've stuck so far to a formula that did well for us last year. But we want to be more fluent. We have to evolve so we tried something.
"I thought we were excellent, I really did. We had a chance after 30-odd seconds. They had to change their system to combat us which was a bonus because we worked on that.
"That's the group we have, I'm really proud."