Luton chief eager to praise Manchester City loanee for his 'brilliant response' to Villa mistake at Palace

Luton boss Rob Edwards was eager to highlight the ‘brilliant’ efforts of defender Issa Kabore in bouncing back from his mistake against Aston Villa to help the Hatters pick up a potentially massive point at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The 22-year-old kept his place in the side after the 3-2 defeat at home to Aston Villa the previous weekend where he excelled in the second half, Town fighting back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2, only to unfortunately tarnish that impressive display by leaving Lucas Digne free at the back post in the final minute to head home the winner. Remaining in the right wingback berth against the Eagles, Kabore made a decent start to the contest as he looked to put that error behind him, getting the better of Tyrick Mitchell early on as Luton made a promising attack.

He blotted his copybook slightly with a needless foul on the England international which earned him a booking before the half hour mark, but to his credit, didn’t let the caution affect his performance, staying out of trouble for the rest of the contest. It was in the closing stages where he came to the fore as well, once terrific sliding block when Mitchell looked to pull the trigger from close range and surely put the game beyond Town the stand-out moment, as he also made five clearances and two tackles as well.

In the final minute of stoppage time, Kabore could still muster the energy to make an overlapping run past Andros Townsend, which took a defender away from the substitute, allowing him to deliver a tantalising cross for Cauley Woodrow to glance home the equaliser. However, it was his defending that impressed Edwards the most though, as speaking yesterday, he said: “Issa defended really well late on, a really good header, an important header and a great block.

"I’m really pleased, we showed that today. We highlighted that in the meeting, his block, his header, a brilliant response by him to a disappointment at the end of the Villa game. That’s what we want, as we can make mistakes, we all do, I make more than any of them. As long as we can learn from them and accept them, try and get better, which he clearly has, he’s gone and done that, what a response that is.

“He got booked fairly early on in the game and to keep his control, keep 11 players on the pitch, that was why he didn't come off. We could have had Chieo (Ogbene) at right back when we’re going for it at the end to shuffle things around, but I felt Issa was on a good game. He was playing with really good intensity and defended really well in those final stages to help us stay in the game.”

The Burkina Faso international was clearly elated at the end of the game, going over to the joyous away fans to gift one of them his shirt as a memento, as Edwards added: “Our supporters love him as they can see him giving absolutely everything. He is full tilt all of the time, the amount of times in training I have to say ‘Issa just steady on, calm,’ as he’s hit a match load of sprint the day before a game. He’s brilliant and from a disappointment that was a brilliant brilliant way to bounce back.”