Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Luton Town: Adam Armstrong scores late winner for hosts

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Ben Brereton has a shot for BlackburnImage source, Rex Features
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Blackburn and Luton only registered three efforts on target between them during the game

Top scorer Adam Armstrong grabbed a late winner as Blackburn overcame Luton in a tight game at Ewood Park.

Armstrong headed his 17th league goal of the season to break the deadlock four minutes from time.

However, the Hatters were denied a point in the dying seconds when Harry Cornick's finish was controversially adjudged offside.

The win lifts Blackburn to eighth place in the Championship, three points off the play-offs, while Luton remain 13th.

Blackburn might have broken the deadlock early on but for two vital challenges from Hatters defender Sonny Bradley, who got back to dispossess Armstrong as he shaped to shoot at goal.

Bradley got enough on a Ben Brereton drive to deflect it behind soon afterwards, while Harvey Elliott also went close for Rovers, cutting inside before firing over the bar.

Luton threatened as the game progressed, with Cornick and Kieran Dewsbury-Hall looking dangerous, but they were unable to create many clear-cut openings.

The home side made a raft of changes on the hour mark and one of those, Tyrhys Dolan, went close to scoring twice.

But it was Armstrong who finally found the net, nodding past Simon Sluga after Sam Gallagher had headed back Lewis Holtby's free-kick.

Luton thought they had salvaged an equaliser when Dewsbury-Hall's cross fell to Cornick, who lashed home - only to be thwarted by the assistant referee's flag.

Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It wasn't great at times. As I say to the players when we have games like this, if we have aspirations to get into the top six, we have to be consistently better.

"But we will be better - as we have been miles better than that and still not picked up points or won games. So it's swings and roundabouts."

Luton manager Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties Radio:

"This is a difficult side to play against, but they've hardly had a chance. We've limited them and defended absolutely brilliantly against them, then we've switched off and you can't do that at this level.

"We got punished and that makes me feel physically sick. I can't believe what's happened - the performance, the energy levels, the work-rate - everything they gave me was superb.

"If you take 10 seconds of madness out of the game I'm giving you a different interview now. It's just killed 90-odd minutes of magnificent work."

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