Luton Town 2 Stoke City 3: Stoke ride their luck as Coyne curses his

In the tight, worrying chase for Championship play-off places one mistake can be highly damaging. An own goal by Chris Coyne in the third minute of time added on here severely damaged Luton's hopes but they made too many other errors to complain.

Stoke had established a run of five wins in eight games but had been without a match for eight days. The game was played at pace but with little control. For a while, only Stoke's Luke Chadwick seemed to have the fundamental ability to conjure anything promising at speed.

There was little between the teams until the 21st minute when Luton's Steve Howard knocked the ball into the penalty area, Rowan Vine played it on to Ahmet Brkovic who cracked in a short-range shot.

Until then chances had been rare and shared. The goal did little to alter the pattern, with perhaps Luton slightly the more productive in midfield. However, they had a habit of losing possession when not under pressure. So it was not all that surprising when Luton relinquished their advantage by carelessness that culminated in goalkeeper Dean Brill moving many yards out of his goal in a hopeless attempt to intercept Mamady Sidibe, who was sprinting in on the left otherwise unopposed.

Sidibe sensibly turned the ball across the penalty area before Brill could do anything about it, and Paul Gallagher had no difficulty in putting in the 45th-minute equaliser.

Stoke's ability to counterattack off the back of Luton's errors was something that ought to have brought them more rewards, but their commitment was not altogether convincing. In addition, generally speaking, the Luton defence held their line well, with right back Kevin Foley particularly impressive, neat, quick to go forward and sharp in his passing, which was more than can be said of most of his colleagues ahead of him.

Stoke's defence became increasingly fragile. Mistakes and confusion made it seem more than likely that Luton would snatch back the lead but luck held. A free-kick by Kevin Nicholls brought a fine tip-over save from Steve Simonsen, and Brkovic hit the crossbar with a long header.

Luton regretted their faults when the Stoke substitute Kevin Harper turned the ball inside to Sidibe at the near post and he placed it into the goal area from where Gallagher scored. Luton recovered only by way of a penalty when Karl Henry brought down Howard. Nichols scored from the spot, but in added time the unfortunate Coyne gave Stoke the winning points when he sliced an attempted clearance into this own net.