Luton Town were beaten 3-2 by Coventry City after letting a two goal lead disappear.

The Hatters had held a two goal lead at the CBS Arena through goals by Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo in the first half.

But Ellis Simms and Victor Torp scored goals to cancel out the Hatters’ advantage and after Hatters defender Tom Holmes was sent off, the home side snatched the points through Haji Wright’s injury time winner.

Defeat meant that the Hatters were leapfrogged in the table by the Sky Blues, with results elsewhere seeing Luton slide into the relegation zone in the Championship after 12 games, and the team are 8 points off the Championship play-off positions.

Luton had been looking to build on positive qualities shown in a midweek defeat by league leaders Sunderland as they faced Coventry 17 months on from beating them at Wembley in the Championship play-off final.

But the visitors began their trip to the West Midlands on the back foot, with Josh Eccles and Milan van Ewijk denied by Thomas Kaminski and Ben Sheaf firing wide.

Against the run of play, however, the Hatters would take the lead. Tatsuhiro Sakomoto brought down Tahith Chong in the box, with the referee awarding a spot-kick and from 12 yards, Morris beat Coventry goalkeeper Oliver Dovin despite the Sky Blues’ custodian guessing the right way.

Chong nearly made it two when he held off his man to just create room for an effort that was thwarted by Dovin.

Coventry had looked likelier to grab the game’s next goal, with Simms denied by Kaminski in their best chance, but Luton pulled a surprise on the hosts when they moved 2-0 up with 37 minutes on the clock.

Having scored his first of the season against Sunderland in midweek, Adebayo grabbed his second in as many games when he was played through by Tom Krauß’s low pass and although Dovin got a touch, Adebayo’s finish found the bottom corner in front of the travelling supporters.

Despite one messy goalmouth scramble, Luton entered the break maintaining their two goal advantage. The pattern continued after the break, with Kaminski denying Sheaf and Wright seeing a strike deflected over.

Coventry got a goal back just before the half hour mark, as Simms rose highest to meet Jack Rudoni’s corner and score.

With just over 15 minutes of the 90 to play, Coventry then broke through again to wipe out the Hatters’ two goal lead. Substitute Torp received a pass, turned and duly dispatched a fine strike from range beyond Kaminski’s grasp to bring Mark Robins’ side back on level term.

Luton nearly hit Coventry with another sucker punch when Dovin denied Jacob Brown on a counter-attack, but a foul by Holmes on Wright would see the Luton defender sent off and the Hatters forced to endure injury time a player down.

The Hatters would be unable to see out stoppage time, however, as Wright scored at the second attempt after Kaminski had saved his initial strike, and with an offside appeal against in the build-up rejected, it meant victory for Coventry and defeat for Luton.