Luton Town 2 West Bromwich 2: Luton blessed with fruits of Vine

West Brom caretaker boss Nigel Pearson aired his frustrations after West Brom were denied a late winner in the Coca-Cola Championship match at Luton. The visitors twice came from behind through strikes from Darren Carter and substitute Zoltan Gera after Rowan Vine's brace for the Hatters.

West Brom thought they had grabbed their first away league win since January in injury-time when Ronnie Wallwork bundled home following a Jason Koumas corner - but the effort was disallowed for a foul by Paul McShane. Pearson, in charge of first team affairs at the Hawthorns after the midweek sacking of Bryan Robson, said: "I'm very disappointed that the goal did not stand. "I've had a look at it and I've got to say I did not see a great deal wrong with it. "Our players are very disappointed with it and you can tell by the reaction of the Luton players because none of them seemed to be looking for a free kick. "It seems a bit of a mystery and it means the run goes on in terms of trying to get three points away from home - but that will change."

West Brom were second best in a one-sided opening 45 minutes as Luton opened the scoring in the 26th minute when Vine took a Richard Langley pass, accelerated past McShane, and rifled low into the bottom corner from 18 yards. The Baggies levelled when Nathan Ellington teed up Carter to smash home from 25 yards, but 60 seconds later Hatters took the lead when Vine touched home Dean Morgan's low free-kick for his sixth goal of the season. Koumas hit the post before half-time and Vine struck the crossbar for the hosts after the break before much-improved West Brom equalised again in the 61st minute when Gera converted Paul Robinson's deep cross at the far post.

Pearson said: "It's a mystery why we are not producing the goods for 90 minutes, but we had to be resilient against Luton. "They are physical and direct but they also play some decent football and they will cause teams a lot of problems here." On his position at the club, he said: "It's been a difficult week because the local boys will know about my relationship with Bryan. "The only thing you can do is be professional about how you prepare for games as you still have a job to do and that's all I have to say on the matter." Luton boss Mike Newell said: "We started really really well and I thought it should have been all over after half an hour.

"It's really frustrating because in the last two home games we've only ended up with two points and it really should have been six." On his own week, after being featured in BBC's Panorama investigation on agents within football, Newell added: "I still have not seen the programme, but all I can say is that the investigation started 12 months ago - before I said what I said in January - so other people must have had the same concerns I did."