Friday 23 December 2011

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I would like to wish all blog readers and readers via Lutontownfans website a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

I'm looking forward to the Kettering match on Boxing Day.

My Christmas wishes:

For Gary Sweet from the fickle Luton Town Fans - some peace and appreciation and acknowledgement of his hard work for the club; and end to snide remarks and accusations and support in his quest to achieve what we all want for the club.
For Gary Brabin - A striker who can get us 15 goals between now and the end of the season and the ability to find a line up that works as a team and the courage to stick to it; the support and patience of the fans in his efforts to achieve promotion; success in the aim to get us into League Two!
For Luton Town squad - The confidence to go at sides and finish them off; the fortune to remain fit, well and without suspension; a carton of consistency and bucketful of points leading to promotion.
For the Luton Town Fans - the ability to accept our status; the patience to allow the team to pick up momentum; the desire to cheer the team on come what may and of course the promotion we all long for.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Luton grab a draw from the jaws of victory

First observation I made was no defender on the bench and I promise you that is not hindsight. 

4-5-1 again - too defensive again away from home. 

Started too slowly against a side showing nothing to hurt us. 

Played some delightful football but lacked punch in the final third. Crow was lone striker. 

Lovely header into the net from a corner ruled out because the assistant referee flagged that the ball had been curled over the line before it got to the middle so goal kick given. 

Plenty of incisive passing and couldn't see Lincoln scoring if they played until Saturday as we bossed midfield and Pilks and Kovacs clearing everything. Pressure put on any Lincoln player in possession and robbed them of the ball almost at will. 

A referee who seemed happy to talk to players rather than throw cards at them. Thought he was excellent first half as we were. However, the lack of a second striker seemed a mistake as we should have been out of sight by half time. Midfielders playing well too. Howells getting forward and cutting in or going outside defenders who hadn't a clue how to deal with him. 

39 mins corner from Luton not cleared properly and O'Connor took a whack at the ball but it came back to him and his second shot miskicked to Crow who turned quickly inside the 6 yard box to slide it into the net near the keeper's left hand post. No more than we deserved. 

Lincoln gifting the ball to us consistently, or made to lose it by pressure. Late on Pilks headed the back of an opponent's head and needed treatment. He carried on to half time. 

Kyle Perry played to type and tried on three occasions to con the referee with elaborate dives and was told to get up by the referee. Should have yellow carded him. Definitely should have yellow carded him when he virtually assaulted Howells but got away with a bollocking. The only real criticism of the first half was that on two occasions all the players had been drawn over to the Luton left side leaving the Lincoln left winger in acres and on one of those occasions he received the ball cut inside and let fly. Fortunately he was cluless and the shot endangered a light plane coming in to land at Lincoln airport more than it disturbed Pilks in the Luton goal. 

Second half, Luton brought on Hand for Pilks (I'm guessing concussion) and Keane dropped to CB. Lincoln had had a rocket and they applied themselves a lot more and started closing us down as we had them in the first half. We stopped closing down players who had the ball and seemed to invite them to come forward. Very perplexing to see this when in the first half closing them down quickly stopped them playing. 

Lincoln gained confidence. The introduction of Taylor helped them too. Luton were creating little or nothing and seemed happy to defend the goal lead, a suspect strategy given our lack of clean sheets. The referee began to lose the plot a bit and started throwing yellow cards about for offences less serious than those that only got a word in the ear in the first half. A rugby tackle by Gowling only got a yellow card then Jamie hand got one for a basic trip, and Lawless got one for an attempted hack which never landed followed by a silly trip before the advantage given had accrued. 

Power finally got one but he had to commit 4 trips compared to everyone else's 1. Then what was threatened happened. Luton had been defending in depth and only clearing the ball to a Lincoln player for about 10 minutes and finally a cross came in which was headed on and Hinds got a touch with Pilks the gloves stopping it but not till it had just crossed the line for the equaliser. 

If the referee had lost the plot so had Luton and despite a few forays into the Lincoln penalty area which just didn't fall right to the belatedly introduced Blunt, Luton lost the ball on the edge of the Lincoln area and a hopeful lob out of defence looked to have been going to Taylor and Lawless took him out and the referee had set his precedents such that there was no option but to give him a second yellow and put the Lincoln dressing room walls in danger. 

A clever run by Dance led to his running into the box and slipping the ball across the edge of the six yard box and whether Adam Watkins din't call or Brunt ignored the call I don't know but a dummy by Brunt would have let the ball go to the unmarked Watkins for a side foot into the net, but Brunt met the ball and played it backwards out of danger and a longish shot sailed over the bar. 

Willmott had earlier got a yellow card for leaving the field too slowly when subbed for Dance and then on 80 minutes Sheridan went off when subbed even more slowly and the referee did nothing and bollocked Gleeson for bringing this inconsistency to his attention. Overall the late passages of play suggested that Lincoln had become the team most likely to win the game and when another gifting of the ball on the edge of the Lincoln area while Luton had committed defenders forward saw the ball cleared down the middle and I think it was the fresh legs of Taylor which were about to leave Hand for dead and take the substitute through the gaping hole down the middle, leaving Hand little option but to 'invite him to sit down' and 'take one for the team' with a blatant push to earn a second yellow card and the Hatters' second red card of the evening. 

Fortunately, the referee blew for time before Lincoln could take any advantage of Luton's 9 men. 

Lincoln were there for the taking and it should have been game over by half time. Even at 1-0, if they had have continued to play in the same way in the second half as they did in the first, Lincoln would not have had a sniff. This was definitely a case of two points lost not one gained.