Luton Town 1-3 Brighton: Watch Percy Tau's stunning goal, Aaron Connolly and Enock Mwepu also strike at Kenilworth Road

Substitute Percy Tau stole the show with a sublime second half strike as Brighton enjoyed a 3-1 pre-season victory at Championship outfit Luton Town at Kenilworth Road.
Percy Tau celebrates his excellent goal in a pre-season friendly victory at Luton TownPercy Tau celebrates his excellent goal in a pre-season friendly victory at Luton Town
Percy Tau celebrates his excellent goal in a pre-season friendly victory at Luton Town

Graham Potter's team followed up their 0-0 draw at Scottish Champions Rangers last week with another decent pre-season tune-up at Luton, who finished 12th in the second tier last campaign.

Albion opened the scoring on nine minutes with a well-taken finish from just inside the box after a throughball from Connolly.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It will be a confidence booster for the Ireland striker, who had a loan stint at Luton in 2019. Connolly, 21, had a patchy campaign last time out and will hope for a strong start to the new season.

It got better for Albion on 35 minutes as new signing Enock Mwepu doubled the lead with low strike. Mwepu, who joined last month from Red Bull Salzburg, was solid against Rangers on his debut and his goal and all round performance were further encouraging signs from the 23-year-old Zambia international.

Harry Cornick pulled one back for Nathan Jones' Luton side just before the break but overall it was decent first 45 minutes from Brighton

Jason Steele, Mikel Karbownik, Steven Alzate, Tau and Florin Andone were introduced after the interval and off went Robert Sanchez, Joel Veltman, Jakub Moder, Connolly and Neal Mauapy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Defender Leo Ostigard, who impressed on loan with Coventry last season in the Championship, also had a run out as he replaced Dan Burn on 57 minutes.

Tau then made his mark just after the hour. The South Africa international linked well with fellow sub Andone before he embarked on a mazy run and then cut inside on his left foot and beautifully picked out the bottom corner.

It was great work from Tau who celebrated in style in front of the Albion fans who travelled to Kenilworth. It's a brief glimpse of what the 26-year-old is capable of and Albion fans will hope to see more of the same in the Premier League this season.

Lallana, Yves Bissouma and Solly March were brought off on 64 minutes as Pascal Gross, Taylor Richards and Andi Zeqiri were all given some minutes. Also seeing some game time were Antef Tsoungui and Marc Leonard, who came on for Shane Duffy and Mwepu.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

All in all an encouraging run out for the Albion who have their final pre-season next Saturday against La Liga outfit Getafe.

They open their Premier League campaign at Burnley on August 14.

Albion: Sanchez (Steele 46), Veltman (Karbownik 46), Duffy (Tsoungui 80), Burn (Ostigard 58), March (Zeqiri 64), Bissouma (Gross 64), Mwepu (Leonard 68), Moder (Tau 46), Lallana (Richards 64), Connolly (Alzate 46), Maupay (Andone 46).