Proud Hatters boss admits being left feeling 'what if' after Liverpool's last-gasp leveller

Luton boss Rob Edwards admitted there was a little bit of ‘what if’ in his thoughts after seeing Liverpool score a stoppage time equaliser to draw 1-1 at Kenilworth Road this evening.

The Hatters entered eight minutes of time added on with a single goal advantage, courtesy of Tahith Chong’s fantastic breakaway opener on 80 minutes.

Although the hosts then saw out five of the allotted eight and were eying a famous, famous win, they were undone when Harvey Elliott’s cross saw Luis Diaz rise to head past Thomas Kaminski and draw the visitors level.

Town then almost won it themselves, Issa Kabore drawing a save out of Reds keeper Alisson Becker, as summing up the game afterwards, Edwards said: “My overriding feeling is pride.

“We’re all winners, we’re all ambitious, we want to win games of football, and when you’re 1-0 up in the 94th minute against Liverpool, of course we want to win the game.

“Overall, maybe they’d feel a bit hard done by if we’d have won that game.

“They’re going to be the dominant team, we know that, but we had a real plan, the players committed to it and we got close.

“So my overriding feeling is pride not disappointment tonight.

"There’s a bit of what if and if only, but the players gave absolutely everything.

“They’re Liverpool Football Club, that's why they are who they are, they found a way to get a result from a difficult situation.”

Luton’s goal when it came was a fantastic move that started from a Reds corner, Ross Barkley striding forward and finding Kabore to his right.

The Manchester City loanee then crossed perfectly for Chong to slide his effort into the net, as asked for his emotions when that went in, Edwards added: “I was very excited, but there’s two reasons why I didn't over celebrate and leg it down the whole touchline.

“One was VAR, I was thinking, is there going to be some kind of check going on? Which there was.

"And then there’s still probably enough time for Liverpool to get about four goals, so I thought I don't want to over celebrate, just try and concentrate.

“It was a great feeling, it was a brilliant goal, those are moments that we’re going to get against teams like that, the counter-attacking moments.

“We’re not going to get loads of control in their final third, so it was really good that the players were clinical, it was something we’ve been talking about for the last few weeks.”

Although Liverpool had the majority of the opportunities, Kaminski making some splendid saves, the Belgian should have been picking the ball out of his net on 70 minutes, Darwin Nunez somehow lifting over the bar from just a few yards out.

Once that happened, Edwards admitted he had allowed himself to dream, adding: “You maybe start thinking, is this going to be our day now?

“Then you get a counter-attacking moment and one-nil up, but if I’m being really honest they deserved something because of the chances that they had.

“It wasn’t like it was chance after chance after chance, I didn't feel like we were under immense pressure when we were back in our shape, but you know they've got the quality to break us down.

“They did find a way, but when they missed their chance I did think, it could be our day this.”