Early Payout Offer sees Luton Town backers paid out before Bournemouth fightback

Thanks to our '2 Goals Ahead Early Payout Offer', backers of Luton Town were paid out as winners on Wednesday night despite the Hatters succumbing to a gut-wrenching defeat at Bournemouth.

It was a night that promised so much, but delivered so little for Luton Town.

Rob Edwards' side couldn't have dreamed of a better opening 45 minutes at the Vitality Stadium - storming into a 3-0 lead at the break, and seemingly propelling themselves out of the Premier League relegation zone, at Nottingham Forest's expense.

The Hatters were 9/2 pre-match outsiders to secure the spoils on the south coast, and their backers were handsomely rewarded in just the 31st minute when Chiedozie Ogbenne triggered the '2 Goals Early Payout Offer' threshold after Tahith Chong had broken the deadlock just nine minutes in.

When Ross Barkley struck home what everybody had thought to have been a decisive, and match-winning, third on the stroke of half-time, Luton were as short as 1/8 to depart Dorset with all three-points in tow.

Surely, there was no way back for the deflated hosts or customers to have backed Bournemouth in the betting!

Well, so you'd have thought...

Leading Cherries marksman Dominic Solanke needed just five minutes to ignite what would prove to be one of the most remarkable second-half fightbacks in top-flight history, exquisitely clipping home his 15th league goal of the campaign to lift spirits at the Vitality.

Andoni Iraola's galvanised troops clearly had the wind in their sails, and when Illia Zabarnyi's header just about crept over the goal line on the hour mark, shaving the deficit to just one goal, you could sense the inevitability of the drama that was about to unfold.

Luton were well and truly on the rocks, and the 88 backers of a Bournemouth 4-3 win, priced at 66/1 ahead of kick-off, were licking their lips when former Bristol City man Antonie Semenyo lashed home a thumping leveller just two minutes later as Luton's survival hopes took a battering.

Could the Cherries go on to become only the fifth team in Premier League history to overturn a three-goal deficit to win a game?

Of course they could, but not before former Chelsea man Barkley spurned a gilt-edged opportunity to restore the visitors' lead, lashing high and wide from three-yards after Carlton Morris' miscued header had fallen perfectly into his path.

It was a miss that would prove hugely decisive as, soon after, Semenyo capitalised on Enes Unal's intelligent through ball, raced into the box and finished with pinpoint precision to complete the most improbable comeback the Vitality Stadium has ever witnessed, and in the process inflict a potentially season-defining defeat upon the crestfallen visitors.

"What a hammer blow for Luton Town and their survival chances," said bet365's Steve Freeth.

"But thankfully for the pre-match backers of the Hatters, they were still able to profit from the fact that their bets were paid out early after Ogbenne had fired his side two goals in front during that dominant first-half showing.

"Also, fair play to the backers of a 4-3 Bournemouth win; I'm sure none of them would have been expecting to see that land at the interval."

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Mark Mothershaw

• A.F.C. Bournemouth
• Luton Town F.C.
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