Rotherham United 0-2 Luton Town - Hatters strengthen grip on play-off spot
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Carlton Morris has now scored 18 Championship goals for Luton Town this season
Luton Town strengthened their grip on a Championship play-off place with a dominant performance against Rotherham United at the New York Stadium.
After second-placed Sheffield United's win over Cardiff City in the early kick-off, Luton needed three points to keep alive their faint hopes of grabbing the other automatic promotion spot behind Burnley.
They promptly extended their unbeaten run to 10 games, their best run at this level for 40 years, as goals from Carlton Morris and Cauley Woodrow did the damage.
The joy of the 2,000 away fans in attendance was tempered by the sight of Morris - who has been involved in almost half of Luton's goals this season with 18 strikes and six assists - limping off injured in the second half.
Defeat means the Millers still have work to do in their battle against relegation despite this only being the second defeat in their past five home games.
The Hatters took control of the game early on and rarely looked in any danger of losing against a home side which had beaten West Brom and Sunderland on their own patch in recent weeks.
Rob Edwards' side stepped up the tempo late in the first half as Woodrow's cross was headed inches over the bar by Morris, and then Millers keeper Josh Vickers produced a miraculous save to claw away Amari'i Bell's shot.
The pressure finally told as Bell picked out Morris on the right-hand side of the box. Faced with an acute angle, he turned inside onto his left foot and expertly curled the ball into the far top corner to give the Hatters the lead.
The lead was doubled within a minute of the restart when Cody Drameh pulled off an outrageous backheel nutmeg on Leo Hjelde, raced down the right and crossed to the far post, where a panicked Wes Harding handled.
Vickers came up with another remarkable save from Woodrow's spot kick, parrying right-handed, but the rebound fell kindly for the taker to tap into the unguarded net.
Luton Town boss Rob Edwards told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"We have real momentum at the moment. If it has to be the play-offs we will take that momentum into those games as well.
"That's ten games unbeaten, so it's with us and we have to keep that going.
"We deserved it. At the back end of the first half we were outstanding, 20 to 25 minutes of real control, dominated the game and probed really well, just lacked that little bit of a spark.
"But it was coming - Carlton's header just before the goal, then Carlton's magic to get us the goal just before half time, then a fantastic bit of skill from Cody at the start of the second half to get us the penalty and go 2-0 up, and the onus is not on us to go chasing the game.
"It's hard when they throw the kitchen sink at you, with the giants they have on the pitch. Couple of yellow cards knocking about , one or two warranted and maybe one or two that weren't, but this group fight so hard for the badge, for the club and for the fans.
[On Morris injury] "It was just precautionary. He was feeling his ankle so we'll see how he is."
Rotherham United manager Matt Taylor told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"Everyone else is under pressure as well, even more so because we have a little bit of a buffer with those three points. It was always going to be difficult, Luton and then Burnley [on Tuesday night], and they showed why they are third in the table and we are where we are. We have to dust ourselves down and hit that with energy and a little more quality than we showed today."
"Scrappy first half an hour, pretty even game to start off with, not much in terms of creation from either team. We weren't quite good enough with our use of the ball today, and we needed to hold on when the pressure came on us at the end of the first half.
"We thought we had done it with Josh's save but then a moment of quality from the opposition and a poor bit of defensive play from us, and we're 1-0 down.
"I can't quite believe what happened at the start of the second half, but then we have a mountain to climb. We huffed and puffed but didn't create enough.
"We're not a good chasing team at this level, we become a bit flustered in what we're trying to achieve and in the first half we didn't have enough quality around their area.
"We were probably second-best in too many departments.
"It was a penalty. Two mistakes, Leo is a young player but needs to work his feet a bit longer than he did, and then Wes just felt there was a player closer than he might have been and needs to get his body in line with the ball."