FA Cup: Luton Town 1 Charlton 3

A strong second-half fight-back from Charlton Athletic saw them topple Luton Town 3-1 in an FA Cup second round replay on Thursday.

In a hotly contested clash at Kenilworth Road, Conference outfit Luton threw everything at Charlton and put in a performance which made a mockery of their standing in British football.

They played attractive, attacking football and had Charlton Athletic – a Premier League side four seasons ago – on the back foot.

But after Luton finally took a deserved 38th minute lead, a strike on the stroke of half-time from Scott Wagstaff completely changed the complexion of the match and saw Charlton run away winners, booking themselves a trip to White Hart Lane in the third round of Britain’s most historic football competition.

Buoyed by a potential trip to face Spurs, Luton Town started brightly with Claude Gnakpa and Amari Morgan-Smith’s pace on the wing causing problems for Charlton.

Zdenek Kroca should have given them a first-half lead, but the striker stabbed wide while Danny Crow fired his goal-bound shot into the crossbar.

Luton had been all over their more fancied opponents and took a deserved lead when Kroca made up for his earlier miss, smashing home from close range after a corner was improperly cleared.

It gave Luton and the home crowd a massive boost but Wagstaff’s effort was a hammer-blow heading into the break.

Simon Francis set the goal up, his delivery good enough for Wagstaff to glance home the all-important equaliser.

Charlton were rejuvenated by the goal and showed their class in the second-half when Joe Anyinsah and Johnnie Jackson both added to the scoresheet.

Anyinsah’s smashed his shot through a crowd of bodies near the goal-line before seeing it the back of the net while Jackson’s free-kick took a deflection and sealed Charlton’s spot in the third round.