Promotion-chasing QPR were held 1-1 against play-off hopefuls Luton at Loftus Road as the two sides had to settle for a point which was not really good enough for either side.
Luton were rocked by injuries to three key players in the first 35 minutes of the game when the two Pauls, Underwood and Hughes, were back in the dressing room inside half an hour, joined five minutes later by a third, Peter Holmes, who entered the game as a substitute just 18 minutes earlier.
With Mike Newell already looking like a manager enjoying the luck of a man who had broken mirrors while running over a bunch of black cats, it was maybe inevitable that any breaks on offer were not going to go Luton's way, and so, for much of the game, it proved.
Morten Hyldgaard had already produced two fine saves to deny Paul Furlong and Martin Rowlands, when Luton saw their sole effort of the first half cleared spectacularly from under his own bar by Clarke Carlisle, overhead kicking the ball to safety inches short of the line.
Two minutes later, on the stroke of half-time, Kevin Gallen sent over a deep cross from the left flank, which Furlong headed powerfully home to compound Newell's misery and delight the home fans.
The opening exchanges of the second half did little to convince Newell that his luck was changing. Lee camp twice reacted smartly to parry drives from Kevin Nicholls, and when Enoch Showunmi hesitated before attempting a follow up shot, Luton's clearest chance of the half went begging.
Rangers found themselves forced into an untidy midfield scuffle, as Luton slowly forced their way back into the game, but neither side possessed the composure to create much more than half chances.
And then, just as Luton's luck appeared destined never to turn, fortune smiled on them. Showunmi chased a huge up and under and, as the Rangers defence snoozed, he appeared to control with his arm before hooking his shot over the advancing Camp and into the far corner of the net.
Furlong spurned a glorious chance to win it for Rangers with eight minutes left, only to miscue wide from four yards out, when it seemed easier to score.