This feels like a win and I’m buzzing. The first-half was very dull but the game came alive after Luton scored and our substitutions made a great difference to our performance, giving us a lot more pep. We’ve overtaken Preston and are up to eleventh. I’m off for a drink with a good mate – he’s a Luton fan.
PRE-MATCH
After the disappointment of Wednesday's defeat and the rancour at the way their second goal was allowed to stand we've got to put it behind us and get on with today's challenge. It will be a challenge too as Luton are undefeated in at least five league matches and are currently in fourth position, eleven points above us. We fought back well to get a draw in the away match back in October and despite the changes we've had to make since then, I think we can get at least a draw this afternoon. O'Nien should be fit and it looks like Amad may play some part as well. I was having a St Patrick's drink or two last night and a Man United fan quizzed me about whether Amad was worth having back - yes, unfortunately, as I wish we could hang on to him. A lot of people have been rooting for Bennette to have a start and I'd like to see that too. I'll be listening to the game via SAFSEE and my match prediction is a 2-1 win for us.
I got the team-news not long after 2.00 and saw that we were starting with the same eleven as we did at the Sheffield match but significantly Amad was on the bench. I got SAFSEE on not long before kick-off and Barnesy was back doing the commentary, along with Benno of course.
THE MATCH
Luton kicked off attacking the north end of the stadium and they did most of the early pressing. In the fifth minute Roberts went on a couple of penetrating runs around their box without any end result but it got the crowd going. Luton were playing with two strikers, Adebayo and Morris, and they were going to be a handful. The first ten minutes passed without any real incident and it continued that way till a great shot from Neil came back off the post in the seventeenth minute. A lot of our passes were going astray and we were letting them get too many crosses into our box for Benno’s liking. At the halfway-mark Barnesy said it had been more like a game of chess so far. Luton promptly won the first corner of the game but we managed to clear it. They soon won a second from which we made a quick break, though it came to nothing.
It was sounding like an end of season game and Luton were happy to stroll around while we tried to come up with some decent attacks. Benno said that we needed to give Gelhardt some support as he was fighting a lone battle upfront. The half-hour mark came and went without much else happening but with ten minutes to the break we won our first corner after good work from Roberts. As Luton broke away Lockyer put in a strong tackle and got off with only a yellow card whereas Benno thought it was a red. Luton won a corner shortly before the break and we cleared it. As nothing much had happened it didn’t seem likely that there’d be much stoppage-time. There was just a minute and the whistle went, to polite applause. I hoped that we’d see Pritchard and Amad on asap to give us some creativity.
Luton have won a lot of their games 1-0 so I was hoping that, having had a good talking-to from Mowbray and with a change or two, we could do the same to them. There were no changes for either side as we kicked off again. Five minutes in, Patterson was forced into a real save when he parried a Doughty shot but then a minute or so later Doughty scored from the edge of the box following a neatly-taken free-kick. I think it’d gone through Patto’s legs. We quickly won a corner and an O’Nien shot forced Horvath in goal into his first real save. The match had finally come alive as another O’Nien shot was deflected for a corner. Next thing Amad came on, for Ba, and I was more than happy to hear that. Our fans were making a racket for the first time in ages and there was plenty of time for us to get a goal or two. We won another corner just after the hour but it went straight to Horvath.
With around twenty minutes left, Gelhardt drove a bobbling ball wide and it was a chance missed. We made a quadruple substitution, bringing on Bennette, Ekwah, Gooch and Pritchard for Neil, Gelhardt, Michut and Hume with just over a quarter of an hour on the clock. It was now or never. We won another corner, which we took short, and again it came to nothing. Time was rapidly slipping away and I was more than ready to take a draw. One of the Luton subs, who wasn’t even on the pitch, was booked for interfering with play. Our fans were giving great support and there was a great roar as Ballard went down in their box. No doubt it would’ve been expecting too much for us to be awarded a penalty and of course we weren’t.
Hang on a second while I eat those last words. In the eighty-fifth minute Amad was pulled in their box and after it seemed that ref Scott Oldham wasn’t going to give it, perhaps at the prompting of an assistant, he awarded it. Horvath did his best to out-psyche him but Amad remained cool and put the spot-kick away into the bottom left corner and we were level. We piled on the pressure as we went for the winner and the crowd responded. We won a corner just as five minutes of stoppage time were announced. I’m sure the Luton players were less than happy to hear that. We kept on pressing but couldn’t manage a real scoring chance and it ended 1-1 to much applause and no booing.
