Manager Rob Edwards admitted to feeling “drained” after Luton scored a 90th-minute winner to come from behind to beat Bournemouth 2-1 at Kenilworth Road and take a huge step in the direction of Premier League survival.

Carlton Morris’s goal at the death – which was knocked in at the far post from substitute Cauley Woodrow’s cross – capped a strong second-half display from the home side and moved them level on points with 17th-place Nottingham Forest, who have a game in hand.

That footnote felt insignificant at the end as the stadium rocked with the euphoria of a first league win since Brighton were beaten here late in January.

“I’m quite drained,” said Edwards. “It’s been a tough period and it’s going to continue to be that way.

“It feels great. It’s hard to win a Premier League game, especially for us. We’ve got to find more in the remaining games.

“We put pressure on the lads after (losing against) Tottenham and Arsenal, but I thought we deserved it. We showed character and quality after going 1-0 down.”

Bournemouth had dominated the first half and struck the woodwork twice, first when James Tavernier’s free-kick crashed back off the post then again when Justin Kluivert hit the same upright with a low shot.

Luton were lacklustre and showed little in attack but inertia, but they emerged after the break with renewed life and went close through Morris, who drew a two fine saves from goalkeeper Neto.

Yet they fell behind almost immediately, Tavernier taking the ball off Kluivert in a central position and – after letting it run across his body – arrowing it into the corner.

At that point Luton might have caved, but instead they found renewed fight. Jordan Clark levelled after 73 minutes, finishing off a move he had started with a powerful run and lashing the ball home first time.

A point might have been fair, but Morris met Woodrow’s cross at the death to nick all three.

Edwards added: “It’s big. It’s hard at the moment with the number of key players missing. But that’s why I love those lads in there. They’ve given us everything, they’ve tried so hard.

“Jordan Clark, who’s got his first Premier League goal today, is like so many of our lads who have fought really hard over their footballing journey so far to get here. They don’t want to give this up.

“Just because we’ve won the game today, we’re not out of it, clearly. There’s a long, long way to go, but we’re still in the fight.”

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, who had seen his team win four out of five in the league, reflected on a game that got away from them after the break.

“When you lose at the end, it’s hard,” he said. “It’s been the opposite in the last few games we’ve played.

“We were comfortable for the first 60 minutes, but in the second half it was difficult to find the spaces we’d been finding in the first half.”

Rob Edwards wants his Luton side to use Cauley Woodrow’s dramatic late leveller as a “springboard” after the substitute scored in the final minute of stoppage time to rescue a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace.

The relegation-threatened Hatters were seconds away from a fifth-straight Premier League defeat when Woodrow nodded ex-Eagle Andros Townsend’s delivery past Sam Johnstone’s left post to draw Luton within three points of 17th-placed Nottingham Forest.

It seemed an unlikely result on an afternoon at Selhurst Park in which the hosts managed 21 shots to the visitors’ eight, but instead conceded in the final 15 minutes for a Premier-League leading  21st time.

Edwards said: “I wouldn’t say (that goal) was a turning point, that wouldn’t be the word I’d use.

“We’ve been performing well, obviously results have been against us lately, but that can happen against Manchester United, Liverpool, Villa.

“We played well in those games in big spells, but I wouldn’t say turning point, but hopefully springboard. I’d use that.

“Hopefully it garners a lot of belief. We’re up against it at the moment.

“I know there’s a lot of clubs suffering with injuries, but it’s hard for us with so many players missing, and then to lose two centre-backs during the game as well.

“We’ve got a lot of square pegs in round holes out there towards the end, and to find a way when we’re not our best away from home, to drag a result out, is huge.”

Woodrow had been an 81st-minute replacement for Gabriel Osho, who Edwards revealed had taken a knock to his knee, while Teden Mengi was replaced by Daiki Hashioka.

Luton remain in the relegation zone with 21 points, three fewer than 17th-placed Forest, who play Brighton on Sunday.

Palace were eight points clear of Saturday’s opponents ahead of Oliver Glasner’s third game in charge, and had plenty of chances to extend the distance between them and other relegation-threatened sides – including a late Odsonne Edouard chance that clipped the crossbar.

Austrian Glasner encouragingly found plenty of his own fingerprints across Palace’s performance until the final 30 seconds of the contest.

He said: “In this one situation we didn’t do it. We have to accept the result.

“It hurts. It really hurts today but sometimes you have to feel this hurt then you develop and learn from it, and we will learn from it to be active and keep the opposite team out of our box until the referee ends the game.”

Glasner will not be paying too much attention to Palace’s record of conceding late when the team travel to Spain for a warm-weather camp in the international break, believing dwelling on it to be detrimental to improvement.

He added: “We won’t talk too much about it.

“Sometimes it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“If you always drive a car, you’re afraid of having an accident. If you go down the stairs and you are always afraid to fall down, it will happen.”

Substitute Cauley Woodrow snatched an equaliser in the final seconds of added time as Luton drew 1-1 at Crystal Palace to hand the Hatters a crucial point in their relegation battle.

Jean-Philippe Mateta’s early opener at Selhurst Park looked to be the winner until Woodrow headed home, extending the Eagles’ Premier League-leading tally of late goals conceded in the process.

Sunny Singh Gill made history as the first British South Asian to referee a Premier League match, and was spotted signing autographs as he waited in the tunnel ahead of the second half.

The result draws Luton within three points of safety, while Palace will be ruing a huge missed opportunity to put more breathing room between themselves and the drop zone.

Singh Gill’s decision-making was tested early, when Palace protested for what they felt was a Teden Mengi handball, but the ex-prison officer – who comes from a refereeing family – waved play on.

Luton’s brightest spell of the opening period came when the Hatters won an early corner and Palace were only able to half-clear, the ball pinging around the 18-yard box where Luton came closest through a nodded effort from Ross Barkley, who needed treatment for a nose bleed after colliding with Joel Ward.

Mateta rolled an effort at Thomas Kaminski during the hosts’ first real break into Luton’s final third, not long before the Eagles took an 11th-minute lead through the Frenchman.

Mateta’s fifth league goal of the campaign followed some good work from January signing Daniel Munoz, who was able to latch on to Alfie Doughty’s loose back pass and find his team-mate just inside the six-yard box, where he opened the scoring with a backwards flick.

The Hatters had a handful of chances to reply, but it was the Eagles who applied more pressure as Ward, Jefferson Lerma and Mateta all misdirected efforts.

Singh Gill issued his first Premier League booking to Issa Kabore, who took down Lerma with a reckless challenge in the 27th minute, and showed his second yellow to Eberechi Eze for a pull on Reece Burke’s shirt.

Palace, who managed to keep the in-form Carlton Morris quiet throughout the first half, had a chance to double their lead before the break when another back pass – this time from Reece Burke – allowed Mateta to pounce and round Kaminski, but he found himself at too tight an angle and fired into the side-netting.

Eze threatened twice before the hour mark, while Luton’s best early chance after the break came via Chiedozie Ogbene, who directed a header wide of Sam Johnstone’s left post from six yards out.

Morris finally had a crack, directing a sharp volley straight at Johnstone before Daiki Hashioka sent his effort over the bar.

It was nevertheless an encouraging spell for the Hatters, who entered the afternoon having scored more goals in the final 15 minutes than every Premier League side bar Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal – while the Eagles had conceded the most in that same period.

Yet it was the Eagles who had the first big chance in the final 10 minutes of normal time through an audacious effort from Eze, who launched the ball from inside the centre circle that the scrambling Kaminski could not have stopped, but to his relief skimmed just over the crossbar.

The majority of the chances in six minutes of added time went the hosts’ way – including a crossbar-clipping effort from Odsonne Edouard – but it was Woodrow who made his count when he guided in ex-Eagle Andros Townsend’s delivery to stun Selhurst Park.