Luton Town 3-0 Peterborough United: Fred Onyedinma stars on Hatters debut

Fred Onyedinma joined Luton in May from Wycombe Wanderers for an undisclosed fee

Luton Town forward Fred Onyedinma had a debut to remember as he scored once and set up his side's other two goals as they eased to an opening-day win over newly-promoted Peterborough United in the Championship.

Elijah Adebayo headed the Hatters in front at the back post from Onyedinma's cross after Luton had enjoyed the best of the first half.

Onyedinma was again the provider for Luton's second as he drove down the left and crossed in for Harry Cornick to convert.

The pair reversed roles for the third a few minutes later as the former Wycombe man's volley was saved by Christy Pym before he buried the rebound.

The Hatters almost went behind after seven minutes when goalkeeper Simon Sluga let Kal Naismith's backpass slip under his foot, but the Croatia keeper recovered just in time to clear off the line.

Five minutes later Jordan Clark headed wide for Luton, who started better against their newly-promoted opponents and deservedly went ahead through Adebayo.

It took Posh 41 minutes to create a meaningful chance of their own as Joe Tomlinson's long-range effort was saved by Sluga while Jonson Clarke-Harris also went close.

Peterborough started the second half brightly and had a penalty claim turned down soon after the restart when the ball appeared to hit Naismith's arm, while Luton fans were incensed when Mark Beevers was only yellow-carded after deliberately blocking a through-ball with his hand as Adebayo looked to be through on goal.

But a minute later Luton struck through Cornick as they took control before their deserved third soon after.

It could have been four with 10 minutes left when Onyedimna beat three players as he surged into the penalty area, only for Pym to save his effort with his legs.

Luton Town manager Nathan Jones:

"Fred was brilliant, absolutely brilliant, but that's why we brought him here.

"We've got others and we work on stuff, he's nowhere near his ceiling. Admiral (Muskwe) came on, I thought he was excellent. Carlos (Mendes Gomes) when he came on, settled us down, Henri (Lansbury) you could see why we brought him here and we've still got five or six who are not even in the squad.

"So the strength in depth we've got is very good. What we wanted to add we've added - pace, power and athleticism to the squad.

"I think we could have had even more quality today though as we got in some wonderful situations, but we need to convert those as we won't always have a three-goal cushion."

Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire:

"We made it difficult, we really did. I'm disappointed with the performance. You can't give goals like that away in the second half. It's nothing to do really too much with the level, it's just the decisions we made.

"Even the first goal - we've got to stop the cross - the first goal's a foul, both hands on my centre half, that's a foul. But sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't.

"They started the game as we expected, strong. We saw that through, we got a little bit of control in the game, we just needed to play with a little bit more belief in what we were doing."