Goals at the death helped Luton Town to claim victory on SundayLate

Two late Luton Town goals ensured MK Dons Women could not make it back-to-back wins as they went down 2-0 at Stadium MK on Sunday.

Cheyanna Norman, who scored the winner against Actonians a week earlier, inadvertently put past her own keeper with six minutes to go to give the Hatters the lead before Tasha Fensome caught Dons out four minutes later to secure the victory, and leave Dons to lick their wounds.

Until those final few minutes though, 0-0 seemed to be the fairest result with both sides cancelling each other out on the whole. Dons boss Stephen Healey felt his side had the better of things in the first-half but allowed Luton to come back into it after the break, though it was still the home side with good chances to open the scoring.

Molly Lemon tested Luton keeper Nicole Melling, though the keeper had her bar to thank when Amanda Chimbima thumped the woodwork from a free-kick.

But when Norman put past Jamie-Lee Bamford for the opener, Luton then exploited the gaps left behind as Dons sought an equaliser, netting their second to put the result beyond doubt.

“Ultimately goals change games and that shifted momentum,” said Healey afterwards. “It was unfortunate, and then we left ourselves open and we got punished for the second goal.

“You can see, week-by-week, some of the ideas we’re trying to implement. We did really well in the first-half in possession but we’ve got to work our way into the penalty area.

“Luton were always going to respond at half-time, and we had to adapt to that and withstand those periods. I felt we had enough individuals to create and cause problems.

“It was a local derby, Luton were really resolute and combative, and credit to them.”

Midfielder Lemon added: “There are a lot of positives to take. The first-half was one of our strongest as a team, individually we all had a good game but we got unlucky.

“Our heads went down when the first goal went in, so we have to move on and take the positives into the next game. The negatives we’ll work on, but we have to put it behind us because we were unlucky to lose today.”