Luke Berry’s 89th-minute equaliser rescued a point for Luton Town against fellow relegation rivals Nottingham Forest in a 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road.

Chris Wood gave Forest the lead in the first half, but they failed to take their chances in the second half and were punished late on through second-half substitute Berry.

Forest missed out on the chance to move six points clear of the drop zone as the sides are still separated by three points.

How the match unfolded

Rob Edwards dropped central defender Daiki Hashioka for Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, while after their loss to Brighton, Nuno Espirito Santo opted for three changes, with Willy Boly, Ibrahim Sangare and Anthony Elanga all coming in.

Luton started on the front foot as Ross Barkley forced two saves from Matz Sels before hitting the right post with a shot in the 12th minute.

Divock Origi was played through on goal at the other end for Forest, but his attempt to chip Thomas Kaminski did not have enough power to reach the goal.

The Belgian striker went close again just after the half-hour when Elanga found him unmarked in the box, but his shot was cleared brilliantly off the line by Reece Burke.

Forest did take the lead after 34 minutes through Chris Wood. The forward stretched to volley in Morgan Gibbs-White’s clever dinked cross and bring up his 150th goal in English league games.

Luton thought they equalised before the break through Teden Mengi but the goal was disallowed because the Luton defender had handled the ball before scoring.

Gibbs-White went close to doubling Forest’s lead inside the first minute of the second half, but Kaminski did well to close him down and save his shot.

Forest continued to be the more dangerous side as Elanga had an effort cleared off the line by a backtracking Mengi.

Murillo almost produced a goal-of-the-season contender after 62 minutes when he went for goal from a free-kick inside his own half, but Kaminski was able to scramble back to his line and tip the ball out for a corner.

Luton started to put Forest under pressure in the final 10 minutes of the match and found an equaliser in the 89th minute. 

Burke got on the end of Barkley’s corner and headed the ball into the path of Luke Berry, who smashed it past Sels.

It is the sixth time this season that Luton have equalised after going a goal down and the 19th time Forest have conceded from a set-piece, the most in the league this season.

Ryan Yates almost scored a brilliant half-volley in the seventh minute of stoppage time to steal all three points for Forest, but his strike went just wide of the right post.

Luton remain 18th on 22 points and Forest are still one place above in 17th on 25 points.

Luton report

Match officials

Referee: Darren England. Assistants: James Mainwaring, Richard West. Fourth official: Dean Whitestone. VAR: Andy Madley. Assistant VAR: Simon Bennett.