James Beattie heaps praise on Reading’s hat-trick hero Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan

Reading first-team coach James Beattie congratulated striker Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan after his first senior hat-trick earned his side a stunning 3-2 success at Luton.

The Royals had been trailing 2-1 going into the final 10 minutes, only for Ehibhatiomhan to take advantage of two defensive howlers with clinical finishes to secure the points.

Beattie said: “Kelvin will get a lot of the plaudits and congratulations to him.

“Kelvin’s been patient, his attitude has been great around the group and you can see he’s got a lot of attributes, he just needs to realise them and realise what’s in his grasp if he continues to work hard.

“Today’s a high point, but there’s also other stuff we can work on.

“It was a great team performance. I think we controlled the first half, got the goal and then conceded two goals and went 2-1 down, but great commitment and character for the boys to come back.

“It’s not an easy place to come, they had 11 unbeaten at home, but our away performance to come and try and impose ourselves on the game, we managed to come out winners.

“Kelvin got a hat-trick, so a lot of the plaudits go to him, but I can only emphasise it was a team effort.”

Ehibhatiomhan had his first after five minutes, taking advantage of a poor back header from Isaiah Jones to beat Josh Keeley.

Luton hit back on the stroke of half-time when Emilio Lawrence’s cross was turned in from close range by Nigel Lonwijk.

After the break, George Saville nodded home Jordan Clark’s corner, but with 81 minutes gone, Matt Ritchie’s pinpoint cross was headed in by Ehibhatiomhan.

He then won it three minutes later after Kal Naismith gave the ball away in his own area.

Luton boss Jack Wilshere said: “We have to win the game and that’s that. There was some really good stuff, I thought we dominated a lot, but at any level you can’t give teams three goals and expect to get anything out of the game and that’s what happened.

“Someone is walking away with a match ball and he’s probably touched the ball maybe four or five times and it hurts, it really hurts because we knew the importance of this.

“I felt like the players did as well, but we have to be more consistent with it and we keep talking about it, but it’s a difficult one to take.

“At 2-1 in the 80th minute, there’s no way you can lose that game, you’re thinking okay they’re getting a little bit more momentum and putting the ball in our box, but we gave the ball away and gave them two goals.”