WAYNE ROONEY had waited more than two years to score his first back in English football.
He then saw it cancelled out in under four minutes.
Wayne Rooney is back to his old ways with his first goal in England for 771 daysCredit: Rex Features
And that was not bad enough, Donervon Daniels grabbed another six minutes later to put Luton 2-1 up – before sun Chris Martin levelled for Derby with five minutes remaining.
But an own-goal from defender Jayden Bogle condemned Rooney and his Rams to defeat on his first visit to Kenilworth Road, as all hell broke loose.
Then in a crazy final few minutes Rooney was booked for dissent and his team-mate Max Lowe saw red for manhandling referee Andy Davies in protest.
Phew!
If England’s record scorer did not know how bonkers the Championship before, he surely does now.
This was the mad Hatters’ tea party – and at times you could not have blamed Rooney for thinking what the hell he was doing here.
This was his first senior appearance at Kenilworth Road.
Some would say it is just like Wonderland – a big hole.
Rooney, 34, must have thought he had kissed goodbye to grounds like this when he stopped playing youth team football.
But the Hatters, like their ramshackle old home, show reputations count for nothing in the second tier.
Victory kept alive Luton’s faint hopes of avoiding relegation while Derby now face a mountain to climb to reach the play-offs, even with Rooney as player-coach.
On this evidence Rooney’s biggest challenge in his new role may come as a coach rather than a player.
Raising his team-mates to standard he would expect is going to be no easy task.
The Rams were hoping Rooney’s arrival would give the rest of the players a boost – in terms of both performance and morale.
The Hatters had the first real chance of the game when Harry Cornick’s lob was charged down on the edge of the box by Derby keeper Ben Hamer in the sixth minute.
We had to wait until the 18th minute for Rooney’s first shot of the night – which was comfortably collected by Luton keeper Simon Sluga.
It drew howls of derision from the home fans who then taunted the Three Lions legend with a chorus of: “You’re just a fat granny sh***er.”
Cornick then drove another shot for Luton into the arms of Hamer before Sluga slid out to snuff out a chance for Wagstaff.
Rooney, in an effort to get on the ball, dropped deeper and deeper as the first half went on. And his frustration was there for all to see when just before the break he was given a talking to by ref Andy Davies after moaning about a Rams’ penalty appeal that went ignored.
That injustice must have fired up the Rams during the interval as they started the second half much sharper, with Tom Lawrence firing just over the bar from 20 yards.
Rooney’s presence in the box caused panic in the Hatters defence as Lawrence’s scuffed downward volley bounced up onto the bar and away.
Rooney then faced a different kind of proposition as his marker Matty Pearson went off injured on the hour mark and was replaced by man mountain Daniels.
But Rooney shrugged off the stick from the home fans he fired the visitors in front with a deflected shot in the 63rd minute.
It was his first League goal in England since he scored in Everton’s 3-1 win over Swansea in December 2017.
But his joy was short-lived as Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu lashed home an equaliser for Luton from a corner in the 63rd minute.
The place erupted when Daniels put the hosts 2-1 up with a header from James Bree’s cross four minutes later – his first goal in five years.
But sub Martin made levelled for Derby with a bullet header in the 85th minute – before Bogle stabbed the ball into his own net for the Hatters’ winner 60 seconds later.
Ref Davies then incensed Derby by ruling Lowe had made a back pass to his keeper Hamer.
Davies booked raging Rooney for dissent before sending off Lowe, who had grabbed hold of the ref in protest.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
