Luton Vs Barnet

[That Fat Centre Half]

The last time this game was on the tele it was something of a farce, being played on something more closely aligned to a swimming pool than a football pitch! Still slightly unsure how that game went ahead in the first place and will always remember Ronnie Henry talking the ref out of abandoning it mid way through the 2nd half!

I am assuming Barnet will be rejuvenated following the departure of Westley and the re-appointment of Mad Dog. Not overly keen to face them on his first game back, think they will be up for it and have the bit between there teeth and I can see him getting the best from Akinde again.

We are low on confidence right now and seems like no matter what we do we cant get a win. In this run we have done pretty much everything to shoot ourselves in the foot, missed penalties, red cards, goalkeeping errors. We have played well at times and really should have won at least one of them and possibly more but luck has not really been in our favour of late. Feel like the first goal here is absolutely crucial.

In terms of team to put out, I really think we need to look at giving Stacey a rest. His form has tailed off recently and defensively he is looking increasingly suspect, id like to get JJ back in at right back. Midfield id like us to go back to the diamond with Berry and Lee in the box to box positions and Shinnie and Rea as attacking and defensive midfielders. Lets try and go back to dominating the ball in midfield and passing through teams again!

Not overly confident, but surely our luck and form is due to turn. Almost feel like playing not great and scraping a 1-0 with the goal off Danny Hyltons arse would be better for us at this point, rather than putting anyone to the sword to be honest. We havent really won many games playing poorly and it would give them some belief we can scrape wins rather than having to play great all the time.

Can see another frustrating draw though, if we dont win the nerves will well and truly start jangling and wed be well on our way to full implosion.

 

[oakroader]

its been a long time since luton have flattered themselves on tv....
barnet will be fighting for their points for different reasons to us
logic says its a home banker..we lutoners know different!!
if jones doesnt come out of this with anything but 3 points then
its the gallows for him...
we must not lose this ...

 

[Ban Fat Stan]

I expect it will be the usual performance I've seen of the bees at Luton ....play okay hold our own and lose. Normally get soaked as well.

Martin Allen has already injected some much needed enthusiasm into the fans so the boys will be well supported in voice maybe not numbers .

Wouldn't surprise me if we win and Akinde smashes a penalty in.

 

[Maple Hatter]

Every game is a crucial one at the moment but you feel this really is a must win. We are worryling dropping points at the moment and it seems a long time ago we had a victory to talk about. I'm sure the winless streak is in the minds of the players and if it continues on Saturday we are going to have an extremely nervy end to the season in true Luton style. One things for sure we can't play any worse than we did at Barnet. That must rank among the worst performances of the season. A truely woeful affair lacking in passion and ideas. I've no doubt Mad Dog will have his players chomping at the bit. That could of course backfire providing we keep our discipline. The sensible option for Barnet would be to go for the win. Teams who attack us early in the game tend to upset our rythm. We need to show strenght in defence and get our passing game back to its best. I'm missing our wide attacking play and feeding our strikers in the middle. Our service of late into the box has been woeful. JJ back in defence for me as well but more importantly we need Hylton back on song and banging in the goals. His lack of goals and slow return to form from his injury coincides a lot with our poor run. Can see a few goals tomorrow in both nets. I hate TV games as our record is poor to say the least. NJ needs the team to concentrate on the job in hand and not let anything else get in the way. The teams around us are starting to put some result together. Its time we did too.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Was when we told Barnet to calm it, our last TV victory?

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Pretty sure the Villa cup game last year was on tv and we won that.

Don’t recall a league game we have won that’s been on the tv since then though?

 

[Luke Imp]

I expect it will be the usual performance I've seen of the bees at Luton ....play okay hold our own and lose. Normally get soaked as well.

Martin Allen has already injected some much needed enthusiasm into the fans so the boys will be well supported in voice maybe not numbers .

Wouldn't surprise me if we win and Akinde smashes a penalty in.

Didn't seem to be any enthusiasm from him in that video on your OS earlier in the week. He looked like he had been kidnapped and forced to take the job!

 

[Ban Fat Stan]

Martin Allen is a master of playing things down ....you have been fooled!! !!

 

[BelizeHatter]

Simply, our most important game of the season. Must win.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Simply, our most important game of the season. Must win.

Until next weekend!!

 

[Kenneth E End]

Think we'll go back to the diamond today. Stech didn't make a mistake last weekend, but he might have some paternity leave today after his son was born yesterday morning. I'd go with:

GK James Shea
RB James Justin
LB Dan Potts
CB Alan Sheehan
CB Scott Cuthbert
DM Alan McCormack
CM Olly Lee
CM Andrew Shinnie
AM Luke Berry
CF Danny Hylton
CF James Collins
Subs: Harry Isted, Lloyd Jones, Johnny Mullins, Glen Rea, Harry Cornick, Elliot Lee, Jake Jervis

 

[Kenneth E End]

That XI is how it lines up - but Stech is on the bench.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Big call I think to play McCormack, need some experience in midfield so pleased he has bit the bullet on it. Good to see JJ in there as Stacey has been off of late. Shea gets a chance but probably more to do with his wife giving birth than recent performances!

Cornick not on the bench is also I think a sneaky big decision, normally a great player to bring on in the closing stages.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Barnet doing a decent job of shutting down how we like to play, always seems to be man on top of us, but we are a shadow of what we were. So ponderous in possession. Where’s the quick and intricate movement of pre Christmas Home game? Hasnt been seen since Crawley. Potts started the season as an attacking full back but now all he does is pass it back to Sheehan. We are clearly low on confidence but think teams have worked us out a little bit too.

Poor game overall really, if I were at home I’d switch it off! Just one we can sneak it and maybe get some of our confidence back.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Much better 2nd half and in the end pretty routine. Barnet had done a decent job on us 1st half in my view but the early goal in the 2nd sort of nullified that and in reality bar a couple of times we gave the ball away, hadn’t really created anything of note.

Mccormack made a big difference defensively and we looked better organised than recently in midfield, in possession I thought he looked a little rusty but still very good to have his experience back in there. Cuthbert was great against akinde who looked a shadow of himself. JJ fantastic at right back, should keep his place over Stacey for the weekend and same for Shea who looked assured in what little was required of him. Made a very good save from a free kick toward the end.

We looked dangerous from set pieces the whole game, might have been a different story if that one early second half hadn’t gone in, as Barnet were at least making things tricky for us. Didn’t have a great going forward. Whoever the number 11 that came on was absolutely useless for them! Seeeney the big central midfield player looked reasonable. Might have a chance to stay up as they seemed fairly organised but definitely looked blunt in attack.

 

[Maple Hatter]

Much better second half performace which goes to show how much of a confidence factor this game is. Looked a different side once the first goal went in and in the end it was very comfortable. Barnet look doomed and judging by their lack of support today it seems their fans think so too. They looked a physical side that like to battle but offer nothing going forward. A typical non league outfit you could say. Even if this victory was against the bottom side it was still a very valued win and one hopefully we can build on. A very nervy period of late with results not quite going our way but this could potentially be the turning point.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Mad Dog Out!

 

[rudebwoyben]

I only saw the last 35 minutes of this one but Ross was badly at fault for the second and didn’t look very commanding on their first (although the primary culpability for the first lies with Clough). We looked as disjointed as we ever did all season with an inability to put together passes in the other team’s half with any conviction. Akinde and Coulthirst (the useless no.11) looked very short of confidence and Allen’s judgement concerning Blackman and Akinola is suspect.
So yes, I don’y think there will be a Barnet great escape this season.

 

[springerbfc]

We were shocking at both ends. Two avoidable goals - the first a totally unnecessary foul from Sweeney, the second a dreadful error from Ross - and a total lack of any creativity make it very difficult to see how on earth we are going to pick up enough points to even get close to staying up.

Our only hope is that Luton will presumably be vastly superior to any of the other sides will we face from now on. A pretty small straw to clutch to...

 

[GTFCfish]

Did Hylton celebrate his goal?


Urban wants to know.........

 

[BelizeHatter]

Your goalkeeper saved the scorelines from being five or six with great save after save - so give him a break for one that slipped through that was hit hard and fast and bounced right infront of him. It's not like it made a difference to how many points you would have got, or deserved.

 

[springerbfc]

Sorry but ‘Hollywood’ saves for the cameras are irrelevant when you dive under a harmless shot.

 

[Kenneth E End]

I agree with Jonesy that the referee yesterday was very good. However, Dan Sweeney and John Akinde were very lucky he was as lenient with his cards as he was. I suppose being on TV he didn't want to be the centre of attention, but Barnet could've easily finished the game with 9-10. The former must have made around 5-6 strong fouls across the game. The latter was using his arm a lot and needlessly pilled into James Shea during the second half. If I compare with some of the red cards we've had this season from some refs...

 

[Kenneth E End]

Across the 90 minutes, Luton thoroughly deserved their victory. A long time coming, albeit against the bottom club. Amazing that 24 hours ago Jonesy was the worst manager in the history of Luton Town and now he's the saviour...!

Barnet's players were absolutely up for it yesterday, especially in the first half; obviously being given a gee-up by their new boss. They didn't give us a second to play and pressed very high up the pitch. If they can keep up that level of play, there is at least something for Allen to work with. Unfortunately, I think he's arrived too late and they're already doomed.

I read some tweets at HT about the first half being a dire game. I wouldn't have said so? I think we did a lot of stuff, but just couldn't score. The second half we increased the tempo and Barnet allowed us a few gaps to exploit. The game could've been 4 or 5 if it weren't for some great saves from the keeper.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

The first half was really quite poor in my view. Being fair to Barnet they did a decent job of shutting things down but we were very slow in possession and overall looked a little nervous and lacking in confidence. Lost count of the amount of times the full backs looked up, had nothing on and just tapped it back inside, reminiscent of some of last season play. Neither Hylton or Collins were really in the game at all.

We had some shots from outside the area that were comfortable for their keeper (not a bad thing as Accrington showed! And there’s always a chance one slips through!) and won a few things at set pieces through Potts (he is so good from them) but overall there wasn’t that spark you normally see from us when we are on top of teams and with the akinde chance at the end of the half through our own error, I personally was thinking “I’ve seen this game before!”

The early goal second half really helped us, we got back on top and our confidence visibly grew, especially through Potts and JJ who started to get forward more and be positive in possession, to the point where we might have had at least one more goal. There was definitely nervousness initially though and first half must have been a pretty poor spectacle from a tv perspective.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Just read some of Jones post match comments on the Sky prematch pundits. Wasn't happy his side being questioned on the winless run at all

 

[SkyBluesRose]

If they can keep up that level of play, there is at least something for Allen to work with. Unfortunately, I think he's arrived too late and they're already doomed.

Didn't many people say that about Flynn and Newport last season, only to see them spectacularly stay up the final day?

 

[TommoCUFC]

Can any of the Luton fans confirm the rumours I've heard that they've rejected a £5m bid for that baby that Danny Hylton celebrated with because they raised so much during last summer?

 

[Maple Hatter]

Can any of the Luton fans confirm the rumours I've heard that they've rejected a £5m bid for that baby that Danny Hylton celebrated with because they raised so much during last summer?

Not rejected. Been sold to Peterborough plus add ons of course. The Posh hope to have him in the squad for the Easter games. Fry and Evans are well chuffed at signing another promising youngster.

 

[djs]

Heard that fatty Evans has now eaten the kid.