Town chief pleased to see Luton striker Adebayo off the mark in the top flight

Luton boss Rob Edwards was pleased to see forward Elijah Adebayo get his Premier League tally up and running with his first goal of the season during the 2-1 defeat against Burnley last night.

The 25-year-old has struggled for game time in recent weeks, as after starting the opening three defeats against Brighton, Chelsea and West Ham, dropped to the bench for the trip to Fulham, Edwards preferring to go with Carlton Morris as his sole striker.

Playing just 33 minutes in Luton’s previous three top flight clashes, Adebayo was then thrust into action with just under half an hour to go against the Clarets, replacing Issa Kabore as Town hunted an equaliser.

They eventually got it with six minutes to go, Tahith Chong’s cross headed down by Reece Burke for Adebayo to spin and beat James Trafford with an instinctive finish, scoring his first goal at Kenilworth Road since February 28 and only a third in his last 29 outings.

Sadly, any hopes of it earning Luton another precious point were instantly dashed as the Clarets went straight up the other end from kick-off to move back in front, Jacob Bruun Larsen curling past Thomas Kaminski to break Town hearts and win it for Vincent Kompany’s side.

Speaking about Adebayo’s goal though, Edwards said: “I’m pleased for him, you want your forwards scoring goals and it’s nice.

"He’s come on and affected the game in a positive way.

“That’s what I want our substitutions to do, not sit there and sulk, you want them to come on and have an effect on the game.

"We’ve got a squad that we believe in and we want to try and change the game and shift it in a certain direction.

"We felt he could do that, we felt Chongy could do that and they came on and affected the game in a real positive way.”

Team-mate Jacob Brown, who had been replaced by Chong himself in the second period, continued: “I’m buzzing for him.

"It’s good for him to get the goal and we looked like we had the momentum at that point, so it’s just disappointing to have lost.”

Although dominating the second period, Adebayo’s shot was just one of three that the Hatters had on target all evening from 18 attempts in total.

After a first half in which Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu curled wide, while Chiedozie Ogbene and Jacob Brown put headers off target, the wastefulness was to follow on once more in the second period.

Top scorer Morris missed two very presentable headers, as did Ogbene with his own chance, while Brown saw his back post effort cleared away just before it crossed the line.

Edwards knows it’s a frustrating theme that has to be put right, as he added: “It’s the hardest part in football to score a goal and I’ve answered this question now so many times.

"It’s keep arriving, keep trying to create the chances, arrive, be there with good numbers, keep working on the technique.

"We can practise it in training, but other than that it’s going to be down to the players to put it in.

"We did have big chances there, we created good openings and I’ve said this before, if we weren’t doing that then I’d be more worried.

"But we did create, there’s lots there that we’re positive on, we’re going in the right direction.

"They’re a difficult team to play against and we performed really well.”