Luton vs Crewe

[Crewelad87]

After a pretty decent start we are now without a win in 4 if you include the stupid tin pot trophy. Now we have to tough away games back to back in Luton and Notts. James Jones is away with Scotland u21s and Kiwomya still a week away from playing.

Luton 2-1 Crewe (Hylton, Marriott, Lowe) 7,110 (252 Crewe fans)

We have sold 235 tickets and can still buy them over the phone from Luton til midday tomorrow, hopefully a few extra go.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Think there will be a few more than 6,800 Luton fans - maybe add another 500-1000 to that total.

We have a few selection headaches - Jones hasn't been afraid of throwing the youngsters in; the U23 side beat the "proper" U23 side on Tuesday, although I wouldn't anticipate too many changes from the side that drew with Cheltenham. We too could do with a win - we've only won 5 points from the last 5 games.

I'd go with this team tomorrow, with hopefully Christian Walton back in the country on time:
Walton; Justin, Cuthbert, Sheehan, Potts; Bakinson, McGeehan, Ruddock, Gilliead; Hylton, Marriott

Subs: King, O'Donnell, Famewo, Smith, Gray, McQuoid, Banton

Think there are a lot of players that are clinging onto their places by their fingernails - I would throw Bakinson in tomorrow. By all accounts Olly Lee didn't contribute enough in the last game and frankly hasn't done all season. Dan Potts also needs to become a bit more consistent, although I think he's improved on last season.

 

[Football Purist]

Would I be right in suspecting Bury Park to be one of the least desirable areas of Luton?

 

[oakroader]

Beirut and aleppo would be more welcoming than bury park

 

[Judge Dredd]

Think there will be a few more than 6,800 Luton fans - maybe add another 500-1000 to that total.

We have a few selection headaches - Jones hasn't been afraid of throwing the youngsters in; the U23 side beat the "proper" U23 side on Tuesday, although I wouldn't anticipate too many changes from the side that drew with Cheltenham. We too could do with a win - we've only won 5 points from the last 5 games.

I'd go with this team tomorrow, with hopefully Christian Walton back in the country on time:
Walton; Justin, Cuthbert, Sheehan, Potts; Bakinson, McGeehan, Gray, Gilliead; Hylton, Marriott

Subs: King, O'Donnell, Famewo, Smith, Cook, McQuoid, Banton

Think there are a lot of players that are clinging onto their places by their fingernails - I would throw Bakinson in tomorrow. By all accounts Olly Lee didn't contribute enough in the last game and frankly hasn't done all season. Dan Potts also needs to become a bit more consistent, although I think he's improved on last season.

You wouldn't even have Pelly on the bench?? First name on the team sheet this season for me even if he is still frustrating. Played a key role in so many of our goals this season. Does more than McGeehan for me although obviously the latter is a much bigger direct goal threat.

 

[Kenneth E End]

You wouldn't even have Pelly on the bench?? First name on the team sheet this season for me even if he is still frustrating. Played a key role in so many of our goals this season. Does more than McGeehan for me although obviously the latter is a much bigger direct goal threat.

Oops, forgot about him.

 

[Bosox]

According to reports Jack Senior had a good game in the Trophy, wouldn't mind seeing him over Potts. Also hope Banton gets a chance soon.

 

[cufc17]

Gilliead looking good so far?

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Gilliead looking good so far?

Think it is fair to say he has shown flashes, seems to have good feet and scored a nice goal in the trophy in midweek but has mainly be utilised off the bench so far, starting only the game at Hartlepool and aforementioned trophy game. I am certainly becoming increasingly intrigued by him though and wouldn't mind him coming and playing the role that we currently have Cook doing.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

The midfield, as is so often the case is becoming a bit of a conundrum for me, lots of selection questions for Jones in it.

Think we have a got quite a few decent attacking minded midfield players at the club McGeehan/Gilliead/Cook/Pelly and even Banton throwing himself in that conversation midweek but we have really struggled for a balance there for me at times this year and Im still not sure you can play any combination of those 3 and have it sufficiently to really dominate games there. We certainly dont without having Rea available IMO so tomorrow id go with Bakinson, Gray, Pelly, McGeehan and utilise Gilliead off the bench if we need a spark. Gray I think played a big part in the turn around against Doncaster and whilst not a defensivley minded player, certainly provides more of that than Cook for me.

Maybe when Rea is back fit we might see some really dynamic midfield play but whilst Lee is the de facto starter there I always feel we are massively vulnerable and unlikely to win the battle there.

Im all for giving Bakinson a go in the holding role I think Lee has had his chance to stake a claim to the position with Rea out and he hasnt done it at all, so im intrigued if Bakinson to give us that.

Will no doubt be a tough game and in isolation a draw wouldnt necessarily be a poor result as I think Crewe are probably a decent side, but if we have pretensions on being a top team in this league, we really need to win our home games, especially after what was in my opinion a slightly disappointing draw at Cheltenham.

 

[Bosox]

Bakinson certainly looked fantastic in the Exeter game at the end of the last season but that was a bit of a training game as Exeter weren't really interested in being there. Jones seems set on picking Lee still though so no chance of Bakinson getting run out.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I see Jones is on the five highlights programme tonight after this. Could be an interesting experience for fans who might not know what he is like!

At least he'll have had a few hours to calm down by 9!

 

[Bosox]

My first season watching Luton was 96/97 so my first football heartbreak was delivered by Crewe in the playoffs. Never forgiven the bastards! We'd beaten them 6-0 earlier in the season as well so I assumed the playoffs would be a formality.

Hope we beat them 6-0 again this afternoon (and then don't meet each other in the playoffs obviously).

 

[Football Purist]

My first season watching Luton was 96/97 so my first football heartbreak was delivered by Crewe in the playoffs. Never forgiven the bastards! We'd beaten them 6-0 earlier in the season as well so I assumed the playoffs would be a formality.

Hope we beat them 6-0 again this afternoon (and then don't meet each other in the playoffs obviously).

I attended both play-off games and we played heroically in that second leg at your place to get through to the final where we absolutely hammered Brentford 1-0 in a game where we were clearly far superior to them but couldn't make our dominance into goals.

 

[Football Purist]

Ler'ern 0 Crewe 1
7,570 (277)

 

[Kenneth E End]

Only the one change from the side that drew at Cheltenham last week. Jake Gray replaces Jordan Cook who's not in the 18.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Thought we were really, really poor today, perhaps Crewe might count themselves unlucky not to have won.

Felt like we had a fair bit of possession but it was largely ineffective and lacked any tempo and as a result played right into the hands of Crewe who sat fairly deep and broke well in the first half. Apart from the one move for the goal, which was excellent, we didnt ever move the ball well enough after that. Second half Crewe were just the better side for me and I liked the look of the number 36 who came on second half, looked a really useful player and ran the game at times for them.

So many players had off days, but id especially like to call out McGeehan whose performance I thought was especially pathetic. Id drop him for Orient next week after that, not only did he play poorly he was also a whiny little wanker with shocking body language to boot. Looked like he couldnt be bothered frankly.

We need to have a plan B for when the diamond doesnt work, which is becoming increasingly often, whatever we tried today merely isolated Hylton. I think we have a decent enough young team but not sure if we are quite ready yet to be a real top end team in this league.

 

[Football Purist]

A good point and we're back in the top 7.
UTA!

 

[Bosox]

Don't agree we were poor at all. I know the crowd get angry when we aren't just lumping the ball forward at the first opportunity but I thought we built well from the back throughout the game. I enjoyed watching the game a lot today, two good teams playing good football. Pelly's ball through to Gray for the Luton goal was a real touch of class and Crewe worked their equaliser very well too. That Crewe sub who came on at halftime, I genuinely thought he was a mascot when I first saw him, but he played well and was instrumental in setting up their goal.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Don't agree we were poor at all. I know the crowd get angry when we aren't just lumping the ball forward at the first opportunity but I thought we built well from the back throughout the game. I enjoyed watching the game a lot today, two good teams playing good football. Pelly's ball through to Gray for the Luton goal was a real touch of class and Crewe worked their equaliser very well too. That Crewe sub who came on at halftime, I genuinely thought he was a mascot when I first saw him, but he played well and was instrumental in setting up their goal.

I agree we weren't poor. I thought it was two good sides pretty much cancelling each other out, however our play tailed off badly in the second half. I fancy Crewe to be up there at the end of the season.

 

[Crewelad87]

We seem to play a lot better vs the better sides in the league that actually attempt to play abit of football and not lump it. A decent draw and sounds like we could have nicked it.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Really disagree that we weren't poor. I like us building possession from the back and its what i want to see but we didnt move it quickly enough at all today and Jone said as much in his interview. The one time we did we scored. We were sloppy too as well at times and essentially played into exactly how Crewe wanted us to play because the diamond meant we lacked width and tried to play through them which didnt work time and again. This was typified late in the second half were we had good possession but didnt create a chance of note at all.

I have no issue whatsoever with possession football, it is in fact what I want to see and reject the implication that this is because I want us to "bang it forward" but much of todays play lacked any purpose, tempo or cutting edge and we created very little indeed as a result.

 

[oakroader]

anyone added up the shots on target over the past few games?? What the fuck do we practice in training sessions?? Fucking pathetic

 

[djs]

Whatever we do in training, it clearly doesn't involve a lot of passing to teammates.
And I assume that when we do drills on ball control, several players are absent.
Oh, and presumably we don't do many drills involving moving and finding space, although they don't seem too bad at it in the pre match warm up!
I think that some of our players could do with watching how top players do it and try to learn form it. I don't expect division four players to be as good as Prem players, but basics like working hard should be automatic.

Having said all of that, I'm still not over happy with the diamond midfield or the apparent lack of a plan B - or maybe the players aren't good enough to play it properly, and opponents seem quite able to negate it.

No, I'm not happy.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Love it. We're in the Top 5, have a progressive young up and coming Manager, a super young very promising squad, many of whom are coveted at a higher level.........and even the level headed fans are anxious.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Its as good as its been for God knows how long. Most knew it was next season shot at best, unless it went ridiculously well. Consistency of experience is all thats missing, it seems from afar.Come on you Rip Roaring Hatters.

 

[MJA]

Quite surprised at the start Crewe have made following their efforts last season and their board sticking by Davis. I genuinely believed that a bottom half finish was on the cards this season but fair play, Davis seems to have found his level and looks like it could be a positive season

 

[TimeyWimey]

Not seen him yet but is Lowery the messiah?

 

[Football Purist]

Not seen him yet but is Lowery the messiah?

No.
He's just a very naughty boy.