MATCHWATCH : Luton Town (a)

[South Coast Royal]

We are looking a more robust defensive unit now. 6 clean sheets now, we only had 5 all of last season.

This is an interesting point.

Especially when we barely have any defenders !
The concept of a ‘defensive unit’ is something we’ve not had much chance to build….

I think playing an 8-2 formation has helped defensively .
I do feel sorry for whoever plays up front for us as there is so little support from elsewhere apart from Ince.

It sounds as though being there was a better experience than watching it on TV where the game and passing was much inferior to the previous night's game between Plymouth and Exeter.

A good point in a campaign that Ince Jnr said in yesterday's paper is still all about survival.

[Hound]

This is an interesting point.

Especially when we barely have any defenders !
The concept of a ‘defensive unit’ is something we’ve not had much chance to build….

I think playing an 8-2 formation has helped defensively .
I do feel sorry for whoever plays up front for us as there is so little support from elsewhere apart from Ince.

It sounds as though being there was a better experience than watching it on TV where the game and passing was much inferior to the previous night's game between Plymouth and Exeter.

A good point in a campaign that Ince Jnr said in yesterday's paper is still all about survival.

Not sure I agree with that. Meite, Carroll and Ince were all well forward throughout - that’s 3

Hoilett and Baba also got forward a fair bit. Fornah, Ejaria and Hendrick all had moments getting forward as well - Fornah and Hendrick both came close to scoring.

We had plenty of possession in and around their box just didn’t make nearly enough of it

[Snowflake Royal]

Surprised at some of the negativity on here. It wasn’t a great game by any stretch but Luton do the ugly side of the game very well and we more than matched them, a far cry from some of the weak insipid teams we’ve had in the past that would have rolled over. You only have to go as far back as January against Luton under Paunovic to notice the improvements in the side

Would put everyone at pretty much a 6/10, Holmes and Ince slightly higher, Hoilett and Rahman slightly lower. Said pre match that those two are a concern and they were our weakest players once again, very little attacking output from either of them. Would be surprised if Guinness Walker isn’t back in on Friday

Ejaria getting a fair amount of stick but thought he did OK, battled well in midfield. I’m not sure what people are expecting from him, he hasn’t consistently provided offensively in the three/four years he’s been here. If he can contribute in other areas of the midfield, he can be a useful asset for the squad

Agree with all of this. Don’t need a long memory to recall games when we’d have rolled over, let them beat us up and come away with a 2-0 defeat.

We more than matched them and that’s a huge step in the right direction

Noted someone called Ejaria a luxury player in the thread. As said it’s been years since he was that. I thought he was solid bar the two slips and won his fair share of tackles and headers. Not a great game but a 6/10 like most of the rest of them

My impression is no one really has any complaints about the result or work rate, beyond we had enough opportunities to win it but were piss in front of goal.

Just the complete lack of quality on display on the pitch, except Ince.

[Snowflake Royal]

Especially when we barely have any defenders !
The concept of a ‘defensive unit’ is something we’ve not had much chance to build….

I think playing an 8-2 formation has helped defensively .
I do feel sorry for whoever plays up front for us as there is so little support from elsewhere apart from Ince.

It sounds as though being there was a better experience than watching it on TV where the game and passing was much inferior to the previous night's game between Plymouth and Exeter.

A good point in a campaign that Ince Jnr said in yesterday's paper is still all about survival.

Not sure I agree with that. Meite, Carroll and Ince were all well forward throughout - that’s 3

Hoilett and Baba also got forward a fair bit. Fornah, Ejaria and Hendrick all had moments getting forward as well - Fornah and Hendrick both came close to scoring.

We had plenty of possession in and around their box just didn’t make nearly enough of it

Presuming the 8-2 comment is more in relation to other games where we camp our 18 yard line then concede.

[RoyalBlue]

Especially when we barely have any defenders !
The concept of a ‘defensive unit’ is something we’ve not had much chance to build….

I think playing an 8-2 formation has helped defensively .
I do feel sorry for whoever plays up front for us as there is so little support from elsewhere apart from Ince.

It sounds as though being there was a better experience than watching it on TV where the game and passing was much inferior to the previous night's game between Plymouth and Exeter.

A good point in a campaign that Ince Jnr said in yesterday's paper is still all about survival.

Not sure I agree with that. Meite, Carroll and Ince were all well forward throughout - that’s 3

Hoilett and Baba also got forward a fair bit. Fornah, Ejaria and Hendrick all had moments getting forward as well - Fornah and Hendrick both came close to scoring.

We had plenty of possession in and around their box just didn’t make nearly enough of it

Yes, we had a pretty good shot count, much better than Luton's. Sadly only 3 were on target, although I believe that there were at least two deflections that took the initial shots off-target.

[RoyalBlue]

It's somewhat reassuring to start hearing us described as 'a nasty team' by opposition supporters. No longer Southern Softies and able to give back what we receive with interest.

Luton fans weren't happy at what they saw as our forwards roughing up their big, ugly and equally physical centre backs!

A clip has surfaced on SM of Alex Rae 'accidentally' catching one of their players with his arm and shoulder after the player ran over the touch line and went to continue his run along the line and back onto the pitch!

Back to the days of the likes of Dillon and Wally.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

I went - as just 90 mins down the M1

Great point. Terrific effort from the whole team on a poor pitch only deemed playable at 630.

We were up against a side on a run of one defeat in 10 or something and with one of the best forward lines in the league and we had 5 centre halves out and Holmes wasn't match fit.

Yes the football wasn't great but it wasn't a night for possession football.

[John Smith]

The game when we got battered for 90 mins against a bottom of the table side who hadn’t won for ages, scraped a draw and then had our own fans barrack the team coach?

Don’t think so

In the same sense that both teams could still be playing till next week and wouldn't score. Plus it was in a similar part of the country. On a Tuesday.

So the only similarities being a cliche and the day of the week? Luton and Peterborough are some 60 miles away from each other, hardly a similar part of the country.

I think it was a lot different to the game against Peterborough personally speaking, bar the scoreline. We created far more than what we did against Peterborough and looked a lot more assured at the back as well.

You didn't go to either game did you

[YorkshireRoyal99]

In the same sense that both teams could still be playing till next week and wouldn't score. Plus it was in a similar part of the country. On a Tuesday.

So the only similarities being a cliche and the day of the week? Luton and Peterborough are some 60 miles away from each other, hardly a similar part of the country.

I think it was a lot different to the game against Peterborough personally speaking, bar the scoreline. We created far more than what we did against Peterborough and looked a lot more assured at the back as well.

You didn't go to either game did you

I don't need to do to know that Luton and Peterborough aren't really from same parts of the country.

I did watch the game, I watched both games actually (Peterborough away last year) and the games weren't similar other than the scoreline.

[Hendo]

So the only similarities being a cliche and the day of the week? Luton and Peterborough are some 60 miles away from each other, hardly a similar part of the country.

I think it was a lot different to the game against Peterborough personally speaking, bar the scoreline. We created far more than what we did against Peterborough and looked a lot more assured at the back as well.

You didn't go to either game did you

I don't need to do to know that Luton and Peterborough aren't really from same parts of the country.

I did watch the game, I watched both games actually (Peterborough away last year) and the games weren't similar other than the scoreline.

And they were both at night

[YorkshireRoyal99]

You didn't go to either game did you

I don't need to do to know that Luton and Peterborough aren't really from same parts of the country.

I did watch the game, I watched both games actually (Peterborough away last year) and the games weren't similar other than the scoreline.

And they were both at night

True. They were both played with a ball as well as a referee for the game.

[South Coast Royal]

I went - as just 90 mins down the M1

Great point. Terrific effort from the whole team on a poor pitch only deemed playable at 630.

We were up against a side on a run of one defeat in 10 or something and with one of the best forward lines in the league and we had 5 centre halves out and Holmes wasn't match fit.

Yes the football wasn't great but it wasn't a night for possession football.

Didn't realise the match had been in doubt.
I remember going there on a Boxing Day or New Year's Day and our game was called off late-Luton had a lot of injuries at the time so we wondered if the decision was a bit iffy.

A horrible place and a horrible ground-aren't they due to move out some time soon?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I went - as just 90 mins down the M1

Great point. Terrific effort from the whole team on a poor pitch only deemed playable at 630.

We were up against a side on a run of one defeat in 10 or something and with one of the best forward lines in the league and we had 5 centre halves out and Holmes wasn't match fit.

Yes the football wasn't great but it wasn't a night for possession football.

Didn't realise the match had been in doubt.
I remember going there on a Boxing Day or New Year's Day and our game was called off late-Luton had a lot of injuries at the time so we wondered if the decision was a bit iffy.

A horrible place and a horrible ground-aren't they due to move out some time soon?

I believed they were looking to build a 17,500-seater stadium (this would be 23,000 under different circumstances) which I think is on something similar to an industrial estate. Just a quick google search has shown they aspired to have the ground open in 2024, but that was on the basis that work would have started by early 2022. I've not seen/heard anything on that, so whether that's been pushed back a bit I don't know.

[Snowflake Royal]

I went - as just 90 mins down the M1

Great point. Terrific effort from the whole team on a poor pitch only deemed playable at 630.

We were up against a side on a run of one defeat in 10 or something and with one of the best forward lines in the league and we had 5 centre halves out and Holmes wasn't match fit.

Yes the football wasn't great but it wasn't a night for possession football.

Didn't realise the match had been in doubt.
I remember going there on a Boxing Day or New Year's Day and our game was called off late-Luton had a lot of injuries at the time so we wondered if the decision was a bit iffy.

A horrible place and a horrible ground-aren't they due to move out some time soon?

Dellor was raving about the quality of the pitch.

[Nameless]

I went - as just 90 mins down the M1

Great point. Terrific effort from the whole team on a poor pitch only deemed playable at 630.

We were up against a side on a run of one defeat in 10 or something and with one of the best forward lines in the league and we had 5 centre halves out and Holmes wasn't match fit.

Yes the football wasn't great but it wasn't a night for possession football.

Didn't realise the match had been in doubt.
I remember going there on a Boxing Day or New Year's Day and our game was called off late-Luton had a lot of injuries at the time so we wondered if the decision was a bit iffy.

A horrible place and a horrible ground-aren't they due to move out some time soon?

They’ve been due to move out for about 30 years!
All Sorts of grand plan have come and gone.

[Hendo]

I went - as just 90 mins down the M1

Great point. Terrific effort from the whole team on a poor pitch only deemed playable at 630.

We were up against a side on a run of one defeat in 10 or something and with one of the best forward lines in the league and we had 5 centre halves out and Holmes wasn't match fit.

Yes the football wasn't great but it wasn't a night for possession football.

Didn't realise the match had been in doubt.

Same, although now thinking about it - there were a few players slipping. Holmes and Ovie are two that spring to mind and Meite didn't exactly have the best footing for his attempt in the first half.

[tidus_mi2]

I think from what I've seen this season and how this game panned out probably and frankly, hopefully highlights our current level, mid-table, I think we all would have taken that at the start of the season.