Friday 25 November 2011

Loan window closed

So the loan window has closed and saw late loan deals out of the club for Will Antwi (Grimsby) and Charlie Henry (Aldershot). I can see the logic in both of those deals for Luton. Charlie needs to play games and if he can get that in the Football League then it can only be a benefit. As far as Will is concerned, he didn't do a bad job when he was playing during our spell of the long defensive injury list, but the arrival of Kovacs has left him unlikely to get a game here now and if Janos stays beyond January, and Will does OK at Grimsby, the move may well be made permanent.

I  made a statement last week after the Northampton victory about Adam Watkins, that I felt he was ready for regular starts. I made this comment after seeing him make a big difference to the play in a few games, and certainly in an air of euphoria after he had scored the winner over the Cobblers, but after checking some match notes, I noticed that he has always starred coming on as a substitute whereas when he has started he has struggled to get into the game early on, and has not played as well overall. I began to wonder whether perhaps Brabs has got it right with him, and that he gets the best out of the player as a substitute. If so there has to be a reason and I believe I have found it.

A source close to the player revealed that Adam suffers from nerves before a game and it takes him a while to shake them off when he starts but when he is on the bench he doesn't know when or even if he will be used and so has no time to think about it and therefore just gets on with it. That would answer a lot of questions including why Brabs has said in the past that he wants to bring him along slowly. Well there you go - what do I know? I guess that's why Brabs gets the big bucks and I am looking for a job!

Friday 18 November 2011

What An Enormous Squad?

There seems to be a lot of complaints among fans that we have too big a squad. Is there no pleasing some fans? During the close season there were rumblings that we hadn’t made any signings, the squad was too small and were going to get left behind. Now we have too many? Now we have the biggest squad in the league and the highest wage bill? In my opinion Gary Brabin has done a pretty decent job on the building of a squad and I don’t believe for a minute that his building has finished. Firstly, we have had incredibly bad luck with injuries and we could have stuck with the squad we had and try to weather the injury crisis, but instead Brabin was allowed to bring in replacements. He only brought in players who he felt would improve us overall, or who he wanted to have a look at on short term contracts. This has meant that some of the players brought in after the season began have been superseded in the pecking order. Players like Will Antwi and Dean Beckwith, first choice when injuries were rife in that defence, now cannot get a look in with Pilks back and Kovacs staying on. Perhaps some of these players will go along the same route as Collin Samuel and be released, or perhaps they will get their contracts extended to the end of the season. Who knows at this stage?

Even with all the changes in personnel, the budget this season is lower than at any time in our non-league history. The transfer dealings have been very canny and despite rumours to the contrary, players still want to play for Luton Town and as such we are able to bring them in within a tight budget. This does not allow for paying some of the silly fees clubs ask us for because we are Luton Town, and this is why although some decent bids were made, some clubs wanted more than Luton’s valuation of the player. That is not being tight with money; it is not being short of money; it is common sense.

Our squad, after the deregistration of Freddie Murray but after the signing of Taylor and Brunt, including the development players but not the Youth players, and including loan players in, but not out is:  29 of which 7 are forwards. Using similar criteria there would seem to be at least 5 clubs with a larger squad than ours. Whilst I acknowledge that things such as squad size are constantly fluid, and it is virtually impossible to be 100% correct, the following League table, give or take the odd one here and there is not far out. The brackets are players listed as forwards.

Lincoln 33 (11)
Kettering 33 (8)
Fleetwood 33 (7)
Darlington 30 (8)
Telford 29 (11)
Luton 29 (7)
Mansfield 28 (9)
Hayes 28 (8)
Newport 28 (7)
Grimsby 27 (8)
Stockport 27 (8)
Cambridge 27 (6)
Tamworth 27 (6)
Wrexham 26 (6)
Kidderminster 25 (6)
Forest Green 25 (5)
Alfreton 25 (5)
Gateshead 25 (5)
York 24 (6)
Barrow 24 (5)
Southport 24 (5)
Ebbsfleet 24 (5)
Braintree 23 (5)
Bath 22 (5)

Last year, I’m given to understand that Crawley Town had a squad of over 30 and had 12 registered forwards.

In the overall scheme of things, then, it would appear that we are not particularly over-endowed with players or indeed forwards compared to everyone else.

Some Hatters fans will never be happy whatever happens relating to the club, but let us not criticise management based on conjecture and made up facts put about by some individuals to suit an agenda. There is too much negativity among the fans, much of it deliberately fuelled on websites by people with ulterior motives and I’m convinced it rubs off on everyone associated with the running of the club and worse than that, the players.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

A right kick in the Cobblers'...!

Victory over our Football League visitors Northampton Town put us in the hat for the second round on Saturday. We now know that Cheltenham Town will be the visitors, and we should be ready to give them a game at Kenilworth Road.

OK, the match against Northampton  was not exactly inspiring in the first half, but at least we had the laughable Andy D'Urso in the middle doing what he does best - screwing Luton Town, and that gave us something to focus on while the ball was to-ing and fro-ing, as both sides struggled to maintain possession. At least the Cobblers played the game and were not throwing themselves on the floor and time wasting.

The second half was much more entertaining and with a little more composure at the sharp end and a little more support from D'Urso I think we would have put the game to bed much more easily and could have won it 3 or 4 - nil. That of course is notwithstanding Northampton's inability to convert at least 2 golden opportunities to have scored themselves.

I don't want to harp on about referees every week, and as an ex-referee myself, I can often see a referee's thinking when decisions are contentious. In these cases the decision-making is purely a matter of opinion. These are the kind of decisions that balance out over a season, but it is total ineptitude, or lack of bottle, or an apparent shall we say 'lack of sympathy' for a particular club, which makes me seethe.  I think Mr Davies against Fleetwood Town definitely fell in the first and second category whereas the likes of Mr D'Urso and Mr Kettle are concerned, it happens time and again, so let us say, ' the jury is out!'

I am beginning to wonder if referees have got fed up of awarding penalty kicks which we then fail to convert so have decided not to bother 'wasting' those big decisions on us! Hmmmmm?

So finally Luton overcame the lack of 'rub of the green',  and stormed the Cobblers' goal and although the Hatters deserved victory, it was beginning to look like we would not get the important goal. Enter Adam Supersub Watkins. He came on and immediately changed the course of the match. He was very soon involved and looked yet again a real prospect. He latched on to a loose ball on the edge of the area and buried it in the bottom corner and it was a right kick in the Cobblers'.......confidence. The lad is a very useful player with skill strength and pace, but he has the gift that you cannot teach, train or develop... the knack. Even when he finds himself in a position that is not necessarily a logical one for involvement, the ball finds him and he scores out of seemingly nothing. That is a very good attribute to have and many a player has made a top flight career out of 'the knack'. Adam happens to have the knack and the other attributes mentioned earlier, so let us hope he can go through the leagues with us, and not outgrow us and have to move on up the ladder alone. I'm beginning to get a little thin on patience with Gary Brabin regarding Adam. I know there is a danger of burn-out for very young players if they are over played and lack physique, and it takes a while for many teenage players to develop that physical strength, but Adam is now 20 years old and has the physical and mental strength to be involved more often than he is. To quote a man who knew a 'little bit' about the game, Sir Matthew Busby, "If they are good enough - they are old enough", I think it's time to say that Adam is now both!

So we are drawn at home against Cheltenham Town, currently third in League two and fresh from dumping League one Tranmere Rovers out of the Cup. They will come here full of expectation and will be a very difficult team to beat, but we will give them a game and another shock result is not impossible.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Oh my, what a referee.......

Before commenting on the performances of the two teams I have to say that Saturday's refereeing performance was one of the worst I have seen since Andy D'Urso! Mr Davies seemed unwilling or unable to make any major decisions and in the first half in particular was very close to losing control of the match altogether. Major wrong or non decisions were instrumental in the way the match developed and had the correct decisions been made the outcome might have been so different.

I was amazed at the end when Curtis Osano was named man of the match because although he had a lot of possession and was involved a great deal in the match, he created very little and defended poorly. Having strode forward and lost possession or made poor attempts to cross the ball, he did get back very quickly proving he has the fitness and the 'engine' but when tracking back was constantly too far infield and left either Brodie or Vardy unmarked out wide and therefore found himself being bypassed by some accurate passing by Fleetwood Town, notably for the first goal.

The match began with Luton taking the game to their visitors but it was clear early on that the very big players of the Cod Army were not going to give Luton space and were very quick to press anyone in possession of the ball. That said, for 20 minutes Fleetwood looked all at sea in defence and with a little more luck Luton might have had a couple of goals and possibly two penalty kicks, one for a foul on O'Connor and another for a blatant handball in the area. O'Connor made it easy for the referee to fail to give a penalty in the 7th minute,  when he jinked into the box and played the ball beyond a hesitant defender who stuck out a leg tripping him. The boy was too honest and tried to stay on his feet and the chance was lost whereas had he gone down, the decision was an easy one, it had to have been a penalty kick.

Diminutive left back Brown was having a nightmare and it was very disappointing when he went off injured, because he was a liability, and Willmott, O'Connor and Fleetwood had already shown that he was there for the taking, and his replacement looked a whole lot more composed.

In the 9th minute the dangerous Vardy was sent through got a toe to the ball as Pilkington made his challenge sending the striker up in the air after the ball had long gone for a definite yellow card which duly came.

Then in the 11th minute a tackle on AMS just inside the Fleetwood half, in front of the Bobbers stand, was more GBH than tackle and not only was it a foul but a stonewall yellow and borderline red card offence, but Mr Davies waved play on. Immediately from this outrageous decision, Vardy was out wide left and Osano, who was tracking back on a line towards the left hand goal post instead of going to the right back channel, saw a superb pass from Clancy go sailing by him to Vardy, who was clear, and raced in towards goal. Tyler will know in retrospect that he would have been better staying between his posts but he was exposed and ran out leaving the in-form striker the easiest of opportunities to chip it past him into the empty net. It was more than they deserved but it would never have happened in the referee had done his job over the earlier foul. Up to that point all the good football had come from the Hatters and the disappointment of conceding the first goal was palpable.

Shortly afterwards, Vardy controlled the ball with his hand then drove the ball against the woodwork resulting in a free kick but then kicked the ball away and was booked. I'm not sure which offence he was booked for but they were both bookable offences but this referee was not about to take it that far. Tackles were now flying in all over the place as the players sensed that the referee's control was, to say the least, tenuous and it looked as though there would be a sending off sooner rather than later, if the referee didn't bottle it, but bottle it he did at least twice.

On 43 minutes, as the temperature of the game was reaching boiling point, Fleetwood put a foot in on Shaun Beeley and was deserving of a yellow card, but the referee blew for a free kick and was not going to book the Hatters striker. However, as the referee moved away, Beeley got up and set about Fleetwood, firstly thrusting his chest against him and then pushing his hand in his face. The experienced former Hereford player merely held his hands away from the action and did not retaliate, which was the correct thing to do. The Assistant Referee flagged and after the referee had consulted him it seemed the only course of action was a red card for Beeley. Incredulously, the referee gave a yellow card to both players, which seemed harsh on Fleetwood and lenient for Beeley, notwithstanding the original challenge.

The look on the referee's face as he came near to the touchline below where I was sitting was very stressed and he blew his cheeks out when yet another tasty foul went in and it looked as though he couldn't wait for the half to end. There was still time in the 5 added minutes for a very rash challenge from Pilkington, but it was  on Brodie so eminently forgivable! The referee went over to the two prostrate players and reached towards his pocket and took out his book. The correct decision would have been a second yellow for Pilks and an early bath, but upon seeing blood on Pilkington's face the referee repocketed his book and called Simon Parsell on to the pitch to deal with the injury. Pilks was led down the tunnel probably for stitches and the referee gladly blew for half time. The referee was then delayed in leaving the field having a conversation with a Luton player in the other half of the pitch, so was not handily placed when the tunnel extension began to rock back and forth as the players set about each other inside it. When the referee arrived he stood on the field looking as though he didn't want to see what was happening. God forbid he should have another decision to make. When it had all died down the three officials were escorted from the field and therefore did not have to deal with it.

The second half began with the Town once again attacking well and on 49 minutes the ball was crossed into the Fleetwood penalty area and was bobbling around until a hacked clearance went out to Willmott, who crossed again only for Jackson to attempt unsuccessfully to chest the ball but needed the help of an arm to stop it going past him and with no excuses whatsoever the well positioned referee ignored the offence and sprinted off into the other half. At that point you just knew that it was never going to be your day! It continued to be nip and tuck as the Hatters strove for an equaliser, but in the 66th minute a typical forward's challenge in the penalty area saw AMS get wrong sided, ironically by Jackson, the earlier handball offender in his own box, and as AMS made a challenge the Fleetwood player made sure that the hanging foot of AMS was hooked and he went down like the proverbial sack of effluent. The referee looked as though he was going to wave it away but the Assistant waved his flag violently and across his chest it went and the referee was forced to accept the advice and award a penalty kick.

Milligan netted for a 2-0 lead and regrettably the Town began to resort to desperation tactics and far too many hoofed long balls were delivered with the Fleetwood players now cock-a-hoop and able to deal with that quite easily. It wasn't until the last five minutes that Luton really got it on the ground and tried to play football again. With time all but gone a clipped cross from the left was headed sweetly into the top corner by Kovacs but the referee blew immediately after the restart.

It was not a great performance by the Town but it wasn't as bad as some have suggested. A draw would have been a fair result; but when push came to shove they scored 2 and we didn't. I imagine that the referee must have known what a 'mare he had and if he didn't the assessor will no doubt have pointed it out to him. I just hope he is not allowed near another BSP fixture until he learns to make a decision.