Player of the Month Vs Manager of the Month (Luton Vs Stevenage)

[That Fat Centre Half]

Big game that I have been looking forward too all week.

Stevenage have been absolutely flying of late and have come up to now being well in the automatic promotion hunt that is seemingly growing ever more crowded as no one seems to have any consistency (except perhaps Stevenage of late!). We have had a bit of an upturn of form although 1 too many draws for my liking and this is the first of 3 games against the contenders.

Off the back of a 4-0 win I can't see us looking to change things and I really liked the look of the 11 we put out at Yeovil although there will be the usual calls for Justin to come back in for SOD and perhaps an outside shot that Gambin comes back in after injury.

Godden has been banging them in and he does seem the type of striker who might give Cuthbert a bit of trouble, he'll happily keep the big Number 9s in his pocket all day but Godden seems the clever type that might get the better of him.

Should be a good one I feel, would love a win but think our favourite 1-1 draw is on the cards with both the main men in Hylton and Godden on the score sheet.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Just to be a pedant, Godden was player of the month not Hylton. He was fans player of the month.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Booooo

 

[Vanni]

Should be a good match if both sides go for the win to boost their respective auto promotion hopes. Can't say I'm that surprised that Boro are up there as I thought they were in for a good year, unlike most on this forum who had them down for relegation or a bottom 4 finish. Another thing about Stevenage is that whenever I look at the table, I can't help but think how much better it is to win loads of games (but also getting beat a lot in the process) than a side which seldom loses but draws too many games.

I would go for a 1-1 draw but Boro have only drawn 4 matches this season. So I'm going for a 2-1 home or away win

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Peeled myself of my death bed for this so apologies to anyone who might be sitting in my vicinity today!

Interesting team selection with Potts coming back in, think I'd have preferred the same back 4 as last week with Pelly in the holding role rather than Rea but there we go.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Dear oh dear, knew we were in trouble when we lost the toss. Same old issues from corners rear their ugly head again. First 10-15 mins I thought we were going to get an absolute first half pasting.

Big half time from Jones required now, I fear we don't have the bottle to turn it around however.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Very disappointing really, Stevenage ensured that the game was played on their terms rather than ours and made us play a way in which was to their strengths. We lost the midfield totally.

Jones highly highly culpable for me, the substitution of Gambin pointless if we are going to just hoofing it long. Got out thought by an equally inexperienced manager as he is which is concerning.

Standard bottle job in a big game for us unfortunately.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Carlisle and Plymouth have nothing on us, the biggest bottle job team in the league bar none. Every single time we get within spitting distance we shit a brick and play awfully.

Like Wilkinson the best player on the pitch today by an absolute country mile incidentally.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Also bringing in Potts is almost certainly the worst decision of Jones's fledgling managerial career, would love to hear him justify the thought process there. Pelly has a motm performance last week playing deep. At the meet the gaffer evening in the week he was asked where Pelly's best position was and he said holding midfield. Decides to change it to accommodate Dan fucking Potts. Huh?

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Have to agree with the above. Think perhaps he over thinks things too much, is it too much to ask to play the best 11? We won 4-0 last week and we bring in Potts, who has been out for a considerable period and wasn't exactly all that good to start with!

Potts in of himself wasn't bad but the fact we moved Pelly out of position to accommodate it really is a poor piece of decision making from Jones.

I assume we did this because he wanted Sheehan at centre half but it really disrupted things IMO, culminating in the corner within the first few minutes. From that point on we were always up against it.

So basically we did a fairly siezeable shift around of the 11 that had just won 4-0 to accommodate Sheehan at centre half. To what end exactly?

 

[Kenneth E End]

Also bringing in Potts is almost certainly the worst decision of Jones's fledgling managerial career

No, that was the game at Crawley back in the Autumn - that was a car crash.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Luke Wilkinson the best player on the pitch today by an absolute country mile incidentally.

Some of us had money on him too.

 

[hellogregory]

Carlisle and Plymouth have nothing on us, the biggest bottle job team in the league bar none. Every single time we get within spitting distance we shit a brick and play awfully.

Like Wilkinson the best player on the pitch today by an absolute country mile incidentally.

What?

We've gone from being the hardest team to beat in the league, consistently picking up points and being in the top 3 in the first half of the season... to becoming the worst team in the football league, getting hammered at home every week.

Your so called bottle jobs are nothing compared to that.

Don't worry, you'll be back to winning ways on Tuesday. It will be the easiest 3 points you've ever had. With injuries/suspensions we'll be even weaker than that pathetic shower of shite that we put out today.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I think over a period of time we have you beat, you're in bad form at a bad time but we have been incapable of winning big games for years! Certainly since we have been back up we have constantly failed in big games, under Jones we have been in spitting distance of doing something like today on numerous occasions and have failed to show up.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Set pieces have been an issue for us all season, with our without Walton between the sticks.

Time and time again, the biggest threat, when its been plain and obvious, in the box hasn't been dealt with - Wilkinson today, Burgess v Portsmouth, Bogle v Grimsby to name 3.

 

[hellogregory]

I think over a period of time we have you beat, you're in bad form at a bad time but we have been incapable of winning big games for years!

At least you've had a promotion recently, all be it from the football cesspit.

2012 we bottled League 1 playoffs in the last few games.

Last season we had a good chance of making the playoffs but bottled it over the last few months.

2008 we were in the top 2 of league 1 for most of the second half of the season, absolute certs for promotion, needed something like 2 points from our last 3 games to seal it. We got 1 fucking point from those 3 games, and 2 of which were against teams down the bottom. Bottle job 1 that season, then a few weeks later we bottled it against Leeds in the playoffs at home having won the first leg at Elland Road. 2 bottle jobs within the space of a month.

Then there's this season....

 

[Kenneth E End]

My thoughts on yesterday's game - I thought we were second best in all departments, both tactically and physically, which is really poor. But the worst thing is that you've got a local derby, with an opposition team right next to you in the table who are equally looking for promotion, and they wanted it more than us. It was battle. Stevenage's players were warriors, whilst Luton's were wimps. That is really worrying and I'm hoping some serious questions were asked in the dressing room last night.

That said, Luton had their chances, but have Chris Day to thank for some tremendous saves and a defence in front of him that were resolute. Their mentality was like a cup tie. Wilkinson in particular was outstanding; he was bound to with our continued failure to deal with set pieces and him wanting to prove a point to Jones.

Ben Kennedy's goal was outstanding, which was a bit strange because in the minutes leading up to it, he was on the floor twice complaining of cramp. His celebration then leading to him running the full length of the pitch back up to the Oak Road end. Miraculous recovery.