Luton Town 4

Bradford City 0

The woman behind Luton's press box was obsessed with EastEnders.

So what if League One's top two were playing in front of her, she wanted to regale her pal with the latest goings-on from Albert Square.

She left just before the end. Presumably happy with the result or maybe more bothered about catching the omnibus episode on UK Gold.

It meant she missed a bizarre finale that was stranger than any plot line that the soap writers could dream up.

City had been well beaten. They were second best in everything, no complaints about that.

But they were screaming blue murder as Dean Windass was shown the red card following an altercation with referee Joe Ross after the final whistle.

Colin Todd bounded up to the waiting media afterwards to accuse the official of stirring up Windass with a taunt of "4-0, 4-0". It was a surreal situation. City launched an appeal against the sending off yesterday. Todd is also adamant he will lodge an official complaint about the referee's behaviour.

An explosive two minutes as the players walked off completely overshadowed the previous 90.

The soap fan in the stand was not the only one to have missed the histrionics. The bulk of City's 771 travelling army had jacked it in long before the end.

City had won five in a row and were brimming with confidence as they looked to trim Luton's lead to only one point. This wasn't meant to happen.

But for the history anoraks this was lightning striking twice.

City had gone to Luton once before in a first v second face-off. That match in 1969 ended up 5-0.

Todd admitted: "You can see why they are top of the table. But we haven't shown people our ability because we were rocked and put on the back foot after the first goal.

"But it was going to happen sooner or later. We've had a great run and the players have given me everything.

"Hopefully one result like that will not disrupt us. We'll try to go on another run now and I think we're capable of doing it again."

Dele Adebola declared himself fit to play but was clearly well off the pace. And City's midfield badly lacked shape and balance without Nicky Summerbee.

Steve Schumacher, so impressive in recent weeks, looked all at sea stuck on the right and Luton plundered his absence in the middle during a one-sided first half.

Lee Crooks came back in but was a yard slow to everything and only lasted until half-time. By then the home side were 3-0 up and coasting and the game was gone.

Luton's first shot in anger followed a mistake by Crooks, whose awful pass was picked off by Paul Underwood on half-way. He bent a low cross behind the back four but just beyond the stretching Steve Howard.

The lead followed after 13 minutes as City failed to deal with a long free-kick. They allowed Howard to peel away from the penalty box unnoticed and he nodded the ball back in towards Ahmet Brkovic who lashed an unstoppable overhead volley beyond Paul Henderson.

That knocked the stuffing out of the visitors and the away fans behind Henderson's goal.

Luton, confidence restored after three straight losses, started to stroke the ball about, although their second goal followed a foul on Tom Kearney which was ignored. Play was waved on and the home side picked the ball up straight away with Underwood setting up Howard for the easiest of tap-ins.

After 36 minutes the contest was over. A quick throw-in exposed a gaping hole in City's midfield and Brkovic shuttled possession on to Underwood to fire into the bottom corner.

Todd was clearly unhappy with Crooks's input and hauled him off to give Danny Forrest his first action of the season. Schumacher moved back into the middle to link back up with Kearney, who must have covered every blade of grass in a spirited effort.

The City boss said: "It's too easy to say we missed Summerbee. You expect people to come in to do better and I felt we didn't have enough in midfield in terms of mobility.

"That's why I changed it to put my two regular ones in there to try and stem the tide."

Within two minutes of the switch, Luton almost had a fourth. Brkovic once again was the instigator as he brushed aside a half-hearted challenge from Ben Muirhead but Stephen O'Leary scorned the gift and fired over.

Then the Croatian sensation, as the Kenilworth Road announcer loves to call him, was thwarted by Henderson's block. The rebound dropped straight to Howard whose goal-bound poke was cleared off the line by David Wetherall.

It was a minor victory for the City skipper who had been given his toughest 90 minutes of the season by the all-action Luton targetman.

Simon Royce, who had signed on loan from Charlton the day before, was enjoying the cushiest of debuts. Apart from a first-half glancing header from Windass which had clipped the far post, he had little to contend with before smothering a shot from Muirhead at the second attempt.

But that was an isolated attack and Luton tightened their grip with 20 minutes left.

Everybody seemed to switch off as Windass tangled with centre half Chris Coyne midway inside the City half.

With the pair tangling on the floor, Luton swept forward once again and Henderson made a total hash of Howard's shot. Brkovic latched on the loose ball and tip-toed his way round Bower's goal-line vigil to make it four.

"It's just like watching Brazil" purred the annoying voice on the microphone. While the home fans taunted "Shall we score a goal for you?" as Howard gave his own keeper a scare with a loose defensive header that bounced just wide.

City picked it up in the closing stages and Windass should have finished a crisp move involving Forrest and Darren Holloway. Muirhead then dragged an effort wide after a trademark burst but it was nothing more than a footnote.

Cue the drama after the final whistle.