Weird Wednesday night football saw us 10 points from top and three points from third as we faced ahem Luton. Remember them? Time for more revenge.
Towards the end of our weekly Sunday club, Fatha and I had a bizarre run in with a Luton fan at our local. After watching our mate Dave 'the mad villa fan' enjoy their result against whoever they were playing in the FA Cup, a mysterious bloke wearing a Luton scarf sat down near us, with him he had an even more mysterious large black bag. This being in Bishop the Luton Scarf was much more out of place than a three foot tall black bag. Fatha - being drawn to radgies - naturally went over to talk to him. 15 minutes later Fatha re-joined us and simply shrugged. The next thing I saw was Villa Dave donning some white gloves as the rando Luton fan presented him with a replica Europa Cup. Yeah, you heard. This bloke apparently travels around the country with a replica Europa cup. I had too many questions for a Sunday night- 'Why Bish?' 'Why here?'. I looked on the back and it even had all the winners inscribed on the back. I can only assume they're called 'the hatters' because they're as mad as one and not because they used to make them. As a note he looked like the bloke from Homes under the Hammer. 'It's unusual...' but I don't like it. Anyway...
Reggy eloquently said in his presser that our errors against Wafford were - 'not a weakness, but a question of style'. I don't know about you but that's the most French sounding thing I've heard since the Allo Allo theme tune. For the record I like that theme tune. Luton have fallen hard since they left the Prem. The only good thing about them going up was the fact we didn't have to visit Kenilworth Road.
Luton attempted to start strong, but Mr Ballard was back in action and taking care of business. It was soon apparent that we had something to prove as we got back to that magnificent press we had earlier in the season. Unluckily for Luton they were just the sort team we needed to practice against.
After a shoddy back pass early on, Wilson made one of his now infamous breaks. But he was a marked man. Jobe had started higher up the pitch and one of his balls led to a break from Roberts. Terrified of using his wrong foot however, Roberts bottled it. He cut inside and passed to Issy, who's resulting shot was off the mark . Luton could only watch on while it whistled past the back post. Better form the lads. Enzo linked up well on the left and waited for Dennis' overlapping run. The brilliant first time ball from our fullback was put behind for our first corner of the evening. Our set pieces had saved us last week. Hopefully we'd see more of the same. Not on this occasion though.
We once again forced ourselves on the edge of the six yard box again but Luton had only two defensive tactics they'd be employing tonight - either A) fall over or B) stand still. Option B was deployed and we got another corner.
Our fullbacks seemed to be higher than Willie Nelson in a hot air balloon. This seemed to do the trick and thirteen minutes in Enzo opened his account superbly. Taking the ball onto his right foot before making a worldie look like water off a ducks back. Nothing less than what we'd expected. Let's have a bunch more of those please Enzo.
After another early lead we now needed to be big. Enzo has been effortless on the ball so far. We switched the play to him from the right and the resulting touch he used to bring it down brought emphatic gasp from home fans. Probably the away fans too.
Dennis, Jobe and Le fee formed a formidable triangle on the left and danced rings around Luton. Rigg seemed to be pressing higher than usual, in a similar role he had earlier in the season. When we were playing better. Roberts had struggled to get a decent run on the ball early on and had given the ball away a couple poor passages of play. Hume had him covered though and cleaned up behind. Captain Dan had been quiet in the middle. Probably because the rest of the side were playing like the clappers against the Hatters. But after 20 minutes Dan began to come to life.
A decent run from the aforementioned Paddy led to a free kick on the edge of the box. Enzo stepped up and promptly demolished the wall with a blistering free kick, busting one of their defenders' noses in the process. Ouch. LO9 added another to his highlight reel, clattering into the linesman and then waving the downed officials flag for him when he recovered. Don't ever change Lukey. Luton loaded up on the wings but we'd dealt with it effortlessly.
I write these reports whilst watching the match live and tidy them up afterwards. As soon as I typed 'effortlessly' the linesman on the left saved our bacon with a well spotted offside goal. I then decided to leave out any superlatives of adjectives in our favour till after the match so as not to jinx things and that. Anyway...
After that near mis we reacted insert appropriate adjective later sending Enzo racing up the wing resulting in the French being felled in the box. Not enough for a penner though.
Halftime stats showed we had twice as many passes, more than double the possession and our passes were 25% more accurate
"Numbers are great, aren't they?" - Sobs sr.
A much better show in the first half than Saturday's woeful show against Watford. Le Fee had led the charge well, Dennis had seized every opportunity to link up with the Roma loanee with both of his curtains. The tempo in general had been exactly what we needed in response to the weekend. Each player seemed to have reacted to it. A quick check at the league saw that The Blades were also winning one nil. This meant we'd have even more riding on our second half show.
Luton began the 2nd half looking for a second gear whilst we were looking for a second goal. Moments later we found ourselves crammed into the opposition's box. Paddy again showed it might not be his night and failed to complete another run on the ball. Luton pushed up the field as we sat back. Big Dan had slotted back in effortlessly and we showed some decent switches of play on several occasions.
One of their lads put a studs up challenge on Riggy’s ankle and we all held our breath collectively. The rotter walked away with a yellow. Milan even left the bench and began to warm up. It didn't look good but the hard manchild from Hebburn jogged it off after a couple of minutes. Another Phew. Let’s point out that our sublime 17 year old is still keeping Enzo out of his favoured position in the middle. Fewd for thought.
On 60 minutes Enzo played another pass so good that one of the opposing players got the assist - slotting it through to Wilson to stab home...
ISIDOOOOR!
After stacks of opportunities this was a more than well deserved goal. Gerrup sausage.
As a reaction to this Luton made four subs in as many minutes. Ballard made an excellent block as Clarke somehow walked his way into our box. Now a little on the back foot, eyes began to stray towards the bench. The red and white masses roared to life in the stands and played their part as always. This picked us up as Roberts ran through several players' legs and hit one against the upright. The black cats resident borrower was very unlucky not to get a goal.
Holding the same ankle he'd hurt last month, Rigg made his way off to be swapped for Mayenda. The speedy Spanish super sub stepped up. Nordas came on FOR ASGARD! Sorry not sorry. Salis Samed was to be our second sub of the night, replacing Wilson. To Robert's credit he had put it on the plate for Issy at least twice. Wilson had still done his job though. Samed slotted in the middle and Jobe pushed higher up the pitch who then saw one of his shots bobble round the post.
5 minutes added on. Magic Captain Dan turned on some style an released Enzo who chose to hold up play in their box, Cirkin went through on the overlap and his cross was cleared to Jobe who smashed it into the back of the net! Cirkin’s cross was from out of play, but it was still nice to see.
The whistle went and we finally got to celebrate a clear result in our favour. Our energy and style of play had been just what we needed. A great response to the last few games. Now we look to Leeds next Monday. If we play like that again there's no reason we shouldn't beat them or at least come home with a point.
Night, night Luton. Off to Bedfordshire.
Keep the faith,
GPD
