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.”

Andros Townsend’s first-half goal saw Luton beat Newcastle 1-0 at Kenilworth Road to boost their Premier League survival hopes.

Eddie Howe’s visitors were made to look ordinary by a side tipped widely for the drop.

The winner came during Newcastle’s only spell of sustained first-half pressure as Luton’s star pair of Townsend and Ross Barkley combined at a corner.

The gap to safety now stands at just two points after a third victory on the Hatters’ top-flight return.

Luton had laid out the kit of captain Tom Lockyer in their dressing room, seven days after he suffered a cardiac arrest that forced the abandonment of their game against Bournemouth. The 29-year-old’s name rang around the ground throughout.

The hosts dominated the opening 15 minutes, though the game produced few chances. Jacob Brown stood up Jamaal Lascelles on the left and drilled into the arms of Martin Dubravka, who covered his near post well, while at the other end Callum Wilson nodded wide under pressure after Lewis Miley’s shot was blocked.

Bruno Guimaraes whacked an effort from 18 yards that cracked off the ribs of Gabriel Osho.

Luton failed to clear the resulting corner and Anthony Gordon’s ball back in was met by the head of Wilson, who planted Newcastle’s best chance of the half too near to Thomas Kaminski.

Newcastle were growing into the game until Luton’s opener after 25 minutes against the run of play.

Barkley was brave in getting his head to the ball six yards out as Alfie Doughty’s corner was whipped in, flicking it on to the back post where Townsend had slipped marker Kieran Trippier and nodded past Dubravka. Townsend held aloft the shirt of absent captain Lockyer in tribute.

Luton had led here against Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City and taken just a point from those three games, but against a Newcastle side stretched by injuries, belief swept around Kenilworth Road that a big name would finally tumble.

Just after the half-hour mark it was almost two. Barkley, fresh from his hand in the goal, received the ball in space 30 yards from goal and tried his luck.

His effort flew over the goalkeeper before hammering back off the underside of the bar as home fans decried their luck.

Howe had seen enough. Eight minutes from the end of the half he gambled on two changes, Miley and Lascelles departing for Alexander Isak and Sven Botman.

It yielded little respite for this side. Within minutes Doughty had wrestled past Trippier into the box, Newcastle failed to clear as the ball broke loose, and Townsend was left free to test Dubravka with a firm effort.

The second half began in the same vein, Newcastle increasingly unsure of themselves in countering Luton’s threat. Adebayo was strong on the edge of the box to keep the ball and slide in Brown who rattled the bar with a rasping drive as the visitors clung on.

Newcastle finally rallied a response, and Gordon might have done better when he poked into the side netting from Trippier’s inviting cross. Isak thought he had levelled, bending the ball into the net but denied by the offside flag having moved early from Miguel Almiron’s pass.

Thereafter Newcastle bombarded Luton’s defence, which would not yield as the hosts put bodies on the line in a manner to make their captain proud.

Frank Lampard claimed there is a problematic "culture" at Everton that will require "huge" work to fix following his side's FA Cup thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace.

The Toffees were beaten 4-0 at Selhurst Park in Sunday's quarter-final as Lampard became the third manager to lose each of his first four away games in charge of the club and the first since 1956.

Everton lost Andros Townsend to injury after a bright start, and once Marc Guehi had headed in the opener after 25 minutes, their resistance seemed to crumble.

Jean-Philippe Mateta made it 2-0 before half-time, with Wilfried Zaha and Will Hughes doubling Palace's lead in the final 11 minutes to complete a resounding win.

Everton were jubilant on Thursday after Alex Iwobi's injury-time goal sealed a valuable victory over Newcastle United, but they have now lost nine of their 11 matches in 2022 and conceded 16 goals in five consecutive away losses.

Just three points separate them from Watford in the Premier League relegation zone and, despite having two games in hand, manager Lampard is worried about their predicament.

When asked how big the task facing him is, Lampard told ITV Sport: "Huge, huge, because some things I saw there and in our last away game are intrinsic. They're in there, they're in the culture, and they don't turn with the flick of a switch. They turn with a lot of hard work and character.

"I'm certainly up for that. I believe the players are up for that, but they have to show that in games, and they have to show a reaction in games to do things better.

"We could've been much more comfortable today, as in contesting that game to the end. That's where we should be. The way that we handled bits within the game, without Palace playing particularly well, allowed them a free pass into the semi-final, as far as I'm concerned."

Lampard did not think Palace had to play particularly well in order to progress to the final four.

"Every time we concede, our heads go down and we get worse," he said. "Did Palace have to be good to beat us today? No.

"I'm not disrespecting Palace; I've come here with Chelsea teams and seen Zaha give us problems, [Eberechi] Eze give us problems, Conor Gallagher is one of the best players in the league this year. None of that happened today, and we lost 4-0.

"The dream of getting to Wembley and playing in a semi-final and final has gone. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest prize always this year was, can we stay in the Premier League? That's the focus now."

To compound Everton's problems, it appears Townsend could be facing a lengthy spell out of action after injuring his knee.

"He got his feet caught in the turf. It looks a bad knee injury. I'm devastated for him," Lampard added.

"I don't think it will be weeks. I'll reserve judgement until we find out more. It'll be more than that."

Everton boss Rafael Benitez has been dealt a major blow after star forward Richarlison was ruled out for several weeks with a torn calf.

The Brazil international was substituted after 58 minutes in the 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on Sunday, with Benitez defending that decision by insisting his player was injured.

Now Everton have confirmed 24-year-old Richarlison faces a spell out of action, at a time when they already are without England frontman Dominic Calvert-Lewin due to a thigh injury.

Calvert-Lewin has been absent since August, with Everton hoping Richarlison's spell out of the team will be significantly shorter.

The club said in a medical update on Tuesday that Richarlison is "expected to be sidelined for a number of weeks", stating the former Watford player underwent a scan that revealed the muscle tear.

Richarlison, a strike partner of Neymar in Brazil's team, has three Premier League goals and two assists from 11 appearances this season. He had two goals disallowed in last week's 2-1 home win over Arsenal before getting the equaliser.

His creative influence as well as his goal threat will be missed by an Everton side who sit 14th in the Premier League, with Richarlison having created 13 chances for others so far in this campaign.

That includes four Opta-defined 'big chances', which is more than any other Everton player in the top flight this season.

Everton go to third-placed Chelsea on Thursday at the beginning of a busy two and a half week run that sees them also host Premier League clashes with Leicester City, Newcastle United and Brighton and Hove Albion, and travel to Burnley.

Benitez is also set to be without ex-England winger Andros Townsend, who suffered a fracture in his foot against his former club Palace, while captain Seamus Coleman is recovering after suffering bone bruising and soft tissue damage in the painful loss at Selhurst Park.

Andros Townsend insists his goal celebration during Everton's 1-1 draw with Manchester United was a mark of respect towards Cristiano Ronaldo, rather than mockery.

Townsend netted a second-half equaliser as the Toffees left Old Trafford with a well-earned point.

The winger rounded off a rapid counter by the visitors in the 65th minute, latching onto Abdoulaye Doucoure's pass before drilling past David de Gea.

Townsend marked his strike with his own interpretation of the signature celebration performed by Ronaldo.

But the former Crystal Palace man says the celebration was simply a tribute to one of his idols.

"Not imitating, it's just a mark of respect to a guy who influenced my career," he told BT Sport.

"I spent many hours on the training pitch and in the video room trying to analyse his free-kicks and his step-overs and the way he dedicated himself to football. 

"So, it wasn't an imitation; it was a mark of respect to one of my idols. 

"I probably didn't do the celebration justice and didn't execute it properly!"

For Townsend, the equaliser marked his fifth goal in nine appearances since swapping Selhurst Park for Goodison Park, as many as he scored in his final 79 appearances for Palace.

It was his third consecutive goalscoring appearance in the Premier League, a career first for the former England winger.

Manchester United fell short of expectations once again as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Everton at Old Trafford, with Andros Townsend continuing his brilliant start to the season.

United were bailed out by a late Cristiano Ronaldo winner after an unimpressive performance against Villarreal in midweek, though there was no such drama this time as the Red Devils lacked cohesion in the final third.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sprung something of a surprise by benching Ronaldo in favour of Edinson Cavani, and although that change may not have had the desired effect, United did go into the break leading thanks to Anthony Martial's first league goal since February.

Ronaldo was introduced from the bench for his 200th Premier League appearance but Everton refused to go away and deservedly levelled thanks to Townsend's fifth goal of the season, that equaliser preventing United from briefly going top.

The hosts survived a late scare as Yerry Mina saw a goal ruled out for offside following a nervy VAR check for the home faithful.

Everton were arguably the better team for most the first half and went close to the opening goal in the 16th minute with a Michael Keane header that went just wide.

Demarai Gray then forced David de Gea into a great save with a fine long-range effort shortly after a Cavani header that tested Jordan Pickford.

It took a little longer for United to click into gear, but when they did the deadlock was broken. Mason Greenwood picked out Bruno Fernandes, who turned before feeding Martial into the left side of the area and the Frenchman converted via a slight deflection.

Solskjaer introduced Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho as United went in search of the clincher, but Everton caught them on the break to level.

Gray twice held off flimsy tackles from Fred before feeding Abdoulaye Doucoure, and he set Townsend up for a straightforward finish just past the hour.

Everton thought they had a winner as Mina tapped in from Tom Davies' pass, but United's blushes were spared as replays showed the Colombian had strayed just offside.

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