Luton Town v Accrington Stanley 12/11

[Kenneth E End]

Back to League action today. Jones is expecting a footballing game between the two sides, rather than a physical, frustrate tussle that we've been experiencing of late.

Pelly Ruddock is suspended for Luton, although he may not have played today anyway; Jack Marriott and Johnny Mullins may come back into the side. Craig Mackail-Smith may also start, whilst he's still building up his fitness.

Potential Team:
Christian Walton; James Justin, Alan Sheehan, Johnny Mullins, Scott Cuthbert; Glen Rea; Cameron McGeehan, Jordan Cook; Alex Gilliead; Danny Hylton, Jack Marriott

Subs: Craig King, Dan Potts, Jonathan Smith, Jake Gray, Craig Mackail-Smith, Olly Lee, Isaac Vassell

I also didn't realise Mike Newell was Accrington's first team coach! I don't think there will be Mike Newell £5 notes on display this time.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Interesting game I think today, last year I seem to recall Accrington being a good side who liked to play decent football, and we like to play as well so could be an entertaining game. We really need to start winning games like this if we want to challenge which, despite us being 4th, I feel like ive said that a lot this season and been disappointed by us. Perhaps it speaks to the weakness of the league but I don't think we have really been anything more than OK for a good while now, only winning twice in the league since the 4-1 win over Wycombe, which is a shame as I think we have a lot of real talented players at the moment who have shown what they can do, just lacking a bit at the moment. If we can pick up a win here I'd hope we could get some of the verve back from earlier in the year and get a good winning run going.

Really think there is a genuine debate to be had about whether Marriott is deserving of coming straight back in, although his break last week might have helped him get himself right, he has been really ineffectual for much of this season and I think has looked really short on confidence. Tough decision to break up the partnership he has with Hylton by your own design though.

Unfortunately I think another draw is probably most likely.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Was difficult today as we had to be quite patient with things. We were very much in control but Accrington did quite a decent job of marking Lee out of the game, who you would assume would be the player who we want to ping the ball about and get moves going from deep, which meant that it was Cuthbert who was trying to do that job which obviously isn't going to end well for us. Left us knocking the ball around amongst the back 4 for long periods before losing it with a poor forward pass which got a little frustrating. When we actually did get the ball through the midfield we did some good things and how the ball stayed out after that goal mouth scramble i dont know, credit to their keeper for that.

Second half I thought again we controlled but was beginning to get a "one of those days" feeling when it hits McGeehan and loops in for 1-0. Credit to Vassell I think who really gave us something a bit different to Marriott who was I think largely ineffectual again.

Bloody idiotic from Cook to get himself sent off as up to that point we were under no pressure really, a stupid sending off that luckily didnt cost us.

 

[Bosox]

Bloody idiotic from Cook to get himself sent off as up to that point we were under no pressure really, a stupid sending off that luckily didnt cost us.

Luton are now 5 wins from 5 games when having a man sent off this season. We're unbeatable with 10 men!

The Accrington keeper made some great saves or it could have been a much more comfortable win for Luton today.

 

[Stanleyfan]

I went down to the match today - agreed our keeper was on form today and we could have been a couple down at half time. We had a similar goal mouth scramble v Crawley a few weeks back where we couldn't believe we didn't score. We only really starting having shots when playing against the 10. Always frustrating to lose but we played miles better than against Newport in our last league game.

Was there some incident with our keeper and a ball boy or something late on? Heard the crowd shouting but couldn't see from the away end.

As for Mike Newell he was on our bench last season in the home games and working as a coach but not seen him around this season - not sure if he's still with us or not its all gone very quiet on that front.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I went down to the match today - agreed our keeper was on form today and we could have been a couple down at half time. We had a similar goal mouth scramble v Crawley a few weeks back where we couldn't believe we didn't score. We only really starting having shots when playing against the 10. Always frustrating to lose but we played miles better than against Newport in our last league game.

Was there some incident with our keeper and a ball boy or something late on? Heard the crowd shouting but couldn't see from the away end.

As for Mike Newell he was on our bench last season in the home games and working as a coach but not seen him around this season - not sure if he's still with us or not its all gone very quiet on that front.

He took exception to Cook giving Pearson a push as the ball went out of play for a goal kick and sprinted out from his goal to start pushing and shoving Cook. Think the fans took exception as it didnt look like Cook would have got his first booking if the keeper hadn't done that as it didn't seem like anyone else was making a big deal out of it, and neither the ref or official who was literally right in front of it seemed bothered. It was a bit naughty of Cook though no doubt.

 

[Kenneth E End]

He took exception to Cook giving Pearson a push as the ball went out of play for a goal kick and sprinted out from his goal to start pushing and shoving Cook. Think the fans took exception as it didnt look like Cook would have got his first booking if the keeper hadn't done that as it didn't seem like anyone else was making a big deal out of it, and neither the ref or official who was literally right in front of it seemed bothered. It was a bit naughty of Cook though no doubt.

It was just a bit of handbags, but Cook had to be booked twice yesterday. Just another silly one to add to the club's collection this season.

That was our fifth red card of the season - it makes us look like were a dirty side, which we absolutely are not. Three of those were totally avoidable, as probably at least half of Hylton's 7 bookings. Jones needs to start instilling a bit more discipline.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Luton worked really hard yesterday and deservedly got the three points. Jones said that they weren't anywhere near it in the first half; I thought that was a tad harsh; I thought they played OK and with a bit of luck they'd be a couple of goals ahead.

I thought Accrington were quite a hardworking side who have their limitations. They'll pick up a few points off our competitors this season - they won't be fighting against relegation next Spring.

More I see of him, the more I think that Christian Walton will be knocking on the door of the full England squad prior to Euro 2020.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Was difficult today as we had to be quite patient with things. We were very much in control but Accrington did quite a decent job of marking Lee out of the game, who you would assume would be the player who we want to ping the ball about and get moves going from deep, which meant that it was Cuthbert who was trying to do that job which obviously isn't going to end well for us. Left us knocking the ball around amongst the back 4 for long periods before losing it with a poor forward pass which got a little frustrating.

Yeah this is the issue we seem to have every game. We do most things well but transitioning from our third to the midfield we just seem incapable of at times. I think the problem is the movement of the midfield guys, theoretically with 4 of them we should always have plenty of passing options. But because three of them are attack-minded whenever we have possession they all look to run forwards rather than coming short for the ball. Lee might drop in to collect it but he is inevitably pressed so he doesn't have time to turn with the ball, leaving his only option to go back to Cuthbert. Opposition teams have obviously sussed that Cuthbert is the weakest link in terms of ball playing so don't press him and just let him get on with distributing it as it usually ends in them getting possession back anyway.

We really, really have to work on this as it holds us back massively. At least three of the midfielders should be dropping simultaneously to give passing options deeper and then move up the field in tandem with the ball. We've got the two strikers on the pitch to give us a long option if required, there is no reason for all of the midfielders to push right up so early.

Also feel sorry for Cuthbert, he did his actual job (i.e. defending) brilliantly yesterday, but because he has to try and do some Pirlo-esque deep playmaking (and inevitably failing) people seem to think he played shit. He shouldn't be responsible for picking out forty yard passes, the midfield have to stop shirking responsiblity.