This was a workmanlike if unspectacular win but with three points and a clean sheet we’ve got to be happy.
BEFORE
Playing against sides currently near the bottom of the league fills me with dread as we often seem to struggle against them and tonight's fixture is no exception. Without a win in their last six matches it looks like Luton are about to do what we did not so long ago i.e. drop from the Premier League to League One in consecutive seasons. The news on the injury front is at last looking better with Jobe back in contention and Mundle, Watson and Browne not far off. Like many fans I'm hoping we'll have Mayenda on much earlier as when he came on against Watford, he gave us the drive we'd lacked. Let's hope Hull and Boro can both do us a favour this evening in their away games against Burnley and Sheffield United respectively but we have to take care of our own business and start getting three points from matches like these instead of chucking away two. Leeds gave Watford a thrashing last night after we'd struggled to grab a draw against them. I'll be watching the game in the company of other members of the SAFCSA London Branch and my match prediction is a 2-1 win for us.
On the way to the meeting-place I visited a good mate who’s housebound at the moment and despite being a Luton fan, he reckoned that we’d win 4-0. I got to the venue at 7.00 and checked the team-news. Jobe and Ballard were starting while Mepham and Samed were on the bench so that suited me.
THE GAME
There were about ten of our lot in the bar as the match kicked off. Luton did all of the early pressing but in the fourth minute we had a golden chance to take the lead when Roberts fed Isidor in the box but he rushed his shot when he had plenty of time and space and it went wide of the left post. We won the first corner shortly afterwards but it was cleared at once. It was great to see us scoring from corners on Saturday and with Le Fee taking them I’m hoping for more of the same. We were now doing most of the pressing and a flurry of action in the tenth culminated in a bouncy effort from Neil being held comfortably by Kaminski in goal. We were soon on the attack again and in the thirteenth we took the lead with a great goal by Le Fee. He received the ball as he approached the left angle of their box and hit a powerful shot through a ruck of players and into the bottom right corner, well wide of Kaminski. In the twenty-second we were awarded a free-kick just outside their box when Roberts was fouled but Le Fee’s kick hit the wall. Well, to be more accurate it hit Walters in the face and he had to go to the touchline to get some paper-hanky up his nose.
Roberts put a great low cross in from our right but it went right across their box without any of our players getting a toe in it. Half an hour gone and we were still doing most of the pressing but Luton were awarded a free-kick in a good spot to the right of our box. Patto pushed a resultant header onto the right post and Alli somehow failed to hit the rebound into the net from very close range out but…the ref blew for an infringement anyway and that was that. In the thirty-seventh Isidor failed to get on the end of another good cross from Roberts and then we won a corner on the left. It resulted in Jobe not managing to connect with a bouncing ball and it went for a goal-kick. We won another corner in the forty-second but it was headed away and then Luton were awarded a free-kick. Next thing Luton won a corner and it was headed clear. There was only one minute of added-time and it remained 1-0 as the half-time whistle went. It hadn’t been a great performance by any means but with better finishing we could have been in a comfortable lead. Anyway, I’d thought it wouldn’t be a joy to watch and with the likelihood of Mayenda coming on before long I still felt that we’d win it. Burnley were beating Hull 2-0, which was a blow, and Boro were losing 1-0 but their match had started at 8.00.
As we kicked off again I noticed that Boro had equalised. Luton put a lot of pressure on us in the opening stages of the second period and we managed to survive a dodgy defensive header straight into the path of one of their players in our box. We won a corner in the fifty-second but couldn’t make anything of it. Rigg was injured in a heavy tackle by Fanne but he was able to continue and Fanne became the first player to be yellow-carded. We were playing it sideways and backwards far too much for my liking but then in the fifty-eighth we were 2-0 up and it was a great finish into the bottom-left corner from Isidor after Fanne had duffed a clearance and the ball fell to him – it served Fanne right for that foul on Rigg. Luton had soon made four subs but there was no sign of us making one. We were starting to sit back instead of going for a third and it was shaping up to be a nervous final twenty minutes.
In the seventy-fifth Roberts hit a powerful shot that came off the left post and next thing Rigg, who’d been on the receiving end of some rough treatment, was taken off with Mayenda coming on. We won a corner in the eightieth but Luton eventually cleared it. I was hoping for 3-0 and the lad next to me wanted nothing less than 4-0 and we were certainly looking the likelier side to get a goal. With five minutes on the clock Hume went down with an agonised look on his face but he was soon up and about. Isidor was replaced by Samed and then some great tricksy play by Jobe sent the ball across their box but Roberts couldn’t quite get there to tap it in at the far post. I was expecting around six minutes of added-time and five were duly announced. Not much happened in the remaining time apart from another booking for Luton and it ended 2-0. In the bar we continued to watch the Boro game and Sheffield United had taken the lead. Unfortunately for us, they ended up winning 3-1...
