Promotion thread

[SkyBluesRose]

8 points clear of 4th, effectively 9 with GD.

Anyone going to put in a challenge to us?

Didn't the Doncaster fans say the same last season?

 

[SkyBluesRose]

Somebody is going to rally, who would you have your money on?

You lot and Accrington Stanley.

 

[Conker]

I’ll be more confident if we make a signing or two.

 

[AdamStag]

You lot and Accrington Stanley.

We're a playoff side as it stands.

Another midfielder and forward and we might have a chance

 

[Maple Hatter]

Didn't the Doncaster fans say the same last season?

I think most Luton fans take nothing for granted. We've been there before when teams below have suddenly put in an unbeaten end of season run and got promotion ahead of us. Our performances against Vale, Chesterfield and even today against Morecambe suggest we are capable of a loss in form. The key of any club in contention is to keep the strongest XI together add strength in the transfer window and pray injuries don't take their toll. As far as we are concerned you would think that 9 more wins from the remaining 18 games would be enough. It would take a real slump to put us back in the pack. Sure Doncaster had one last season but they went up. At the end of the day if we secure promotion by scoring a goal in the last minute of the season then I'll happily take that. Winning the league is not something a club should think about until promotion is secured.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I really wouldn't put it past us to shoot ourselves in the foot to be honest. We have hit the self destruct button a few times in games this season and previously under Jones have shown some mental fragility when things have started to go against us. Havent done that too much this season, but its in the back of my mind.

Really have to hope that Hylton isnt injured for too long. He is a talisman for us and a leader now. We missed him today and I didnt like the look of the Lee/Collins partnership at all.

 

[Maple Hatter]

I really wouldn't put it past us to shoot ourselves in the foot to be honest. We have hit the self destruct button a few times in games this season and previously under Jones have shown some mental fragility when things have started to go against us. Havent done that too much this season, but its in the back of my mind.

Really have to hope that Hylton isnt injured for too long. He is a talisman for us and a leader now. We missed him today and I didnt like the look of the Lee/Collins partnership at all.

I agree about Lee/Collins. They just haven't hit it off. Collins in particular wasn't in the game yesterday whereas Lee was out wide most of the game meaning it was difficult for them to strike up any partnership. Not convinced they want to pass to eachother either bearing in mind they are in competition for the same spot.
I think we are a stronger team this season despite some poor performances. Just looked at last seasons fixtures. We got 32 points from the last 18 games finishing 4th 6 points ahead of the other play off teams. The same again would give us 89 points more than Portsmouth who won the league. The top 3 last season were well ahead of the rest of the pack. Doncaster finished 7 points ahead of us. I still think 83 points would be more than enough for promotion which means just 26 points more required. 7 wins 5 draws and 6 defeats. That's mid table form. Can't see us losing 6 games the rest of the season. ( we only lost 9 the whole of last season). Hope that cheers you up a bit FCH.

 

[oakroader]

I reckon we’ve got the lampard/gerrard syndrome with hylton and Collins playing together...
Obviously not as good on the field as on paper....
Collins must raise his game now to dispel any thoughts that we bought a dud.....

 

[AdamStag]

Form table from last 10 games (points)
22 - Luton
19 - Mansfield Wycombe Crawley
18 - Lincoln Newport
17 - Coventry
16 - Accrington
15 - Exeter Swindon

 

[Youpies]

We really need a striker and a new center back, pretty much the same need all the season to keep up our charge. Yesterday showed we don’t have enough cover in our squad should key injuries occur.

We have a good run against lower and mid table sides coming up. Need to push home now and win a good few games on the bounce to keep an auto spot. It’s getting very tight

 

[Kenneth E End]

Form table from last 10 games (points)
22 - Luton
19 - Mansfield Wycombe Crawley
18 - Lincoln Newport
17 - Coventry
16 - Accrington
15 - Exeter Swindon

That is pretty staggering from our point of view, because we haven't played well this year at all so far.

 

[Kenneth E End]

I agree about Lee/Collins. They just haven't hit it off. Collins in particular wasn't in the game yesterday whereas Lee was out wide most of the game meaning it was difficult for them to strike up any partnership. Not convinced they want to pass to eachother either bearing in mind they are in competition for the same spot.
I think we are a stronger team this season despite some poor performances. Just looked at last seasons fixtures. We got 32 points from the last 18 games finishing 4th 6 points ahead of the other play off teams. The same again would give us 89 points more than Portsmouth who won the league. The top 3 last season were well ahead of the rest of the pack. Doncaster finished 7 points ahead of us. I still think 83 points would be more than enough for promotion which means just 26 points more required. 7 wins 5 draws and 6 defeats. That's mid table form. Can't see us losing 6 games the rest of the season. ( we only lost 9 the whole of last season). Hope that cheers you up a bit FCH.

I think the only thing stopping us now is injury and suspension. We're in such a good position.
Sheehan is back next week and Cuthbert should be too far away. What's extremely frustrating with Sheehan is that he's 2 yellows away from another 2 game ban.
Danny Hylton is absolutely key.

 

[Trapdoor]

We need our core 3 CBs (Brown, JMT & Croll) back of we are going to make a serious challenge.

We did ok playing Moxey at center back against notts but that won't work every week.

 

[Hatter86]

I reckon we’ve got the lampard/gerrard syndrome with hylton and Collins playing together...
Obviously not as good on the field as on paper....
Collins must raise his game now to dispel any thoughts that we bought a dud.....

Collins has 12 goals having not played in the silly cup (I believe) and being on the bench for a stretch of games and missing some with injury. He’s not a dud. Create chances for him and he’ll put them away.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Collins is definitely not a dud and I actually think him and Hylton work well together, largely because Danny is such a clever player and much more than just a box player. We do sometimes ask Collins to do things I dont think he is good at though, he isnt a link player and when Hylton isn’t there we do seem to ask that of him.

He’s a funny sort of player really, you see him on the ball and he can looks bit ungainly at times and not all together comfortable, but in the box he is lethal.

It’s weird because on face value Lee and Collins should work I think, Lee doing the running in the channels and Collins just playing in the box but it didnt look great at all yesterday. Maybe will come with time, but we really need Hylton back for the little run of tough fixtures coming up (We never seem to do great at Grimsby, Wycombe, Coventry, Exeter etc)

 

[Hatter86]

We do sometimes ask Collins to do things I dont think he is good at though, he isnt a link player and when Hylton isn’t there we do seem to ask that of him.

Exactly this. Collins is a decent hold up player and good enough technically however his role is as a finisher. He is not a playmaker however we are blessed with Hylton as he does everything. When he isn't there it is somewhat glaring how much we do rely on him or more accurately how central he is to the way we play.

Talking of striker partnerships, Hylton plus any of the other 3 is our best combination however after that I think it could be Collins and Cornick. Cornick loves to run down the wings and Collins gets into the box. Collins and Lee seems not to work so well however that could be because they are both 'finishers'.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Again, its proving how good Danny Hylton is. He'd be a miss for any team in the division above let alone League 2.

Not for sale for a penny under £2.5m.

 

[BelizeHatter]

How about just not for sale.

 

[mowgli]

Not for sale for a penny under £2.5m.

Really? He plays in League 2 for a reason and not higher.

 

[AdamStag]

We really need a striker and a new center back, pretty much the same need all the season to keep up our charge. Yesterday showed we don’t have enough cover in our squad should key injuries occur.

We have a good run against lower and mid table sides coming up. Need to push home now and win a good few games on the bounce to keep an auto spot. It’s getting very tight

Really? He plays in League 2 for a reason and not higher.

But this is Luton though. The Barcelona of England, where figures are bandied around as about as accurately as a carillon director.

Why, £2.5m would be just a snip, it'll be interesting to see how many bids of that figure (or even a 1/4 of it) occur this transfer window?

It'll be somewhere between nothing and nowhere. No player down here is worth anywhere close to that amount and it would be dilusional to think otherwise

 

[william death]

Form table from last 10 games (points)
22 - Luton
19 - Mansfield Wycombe Crawley
18 - Lincoln Newport
17 - Coventry
16 - Accrington
15 - Exeter Swindon

We're just below that with 14, which isn't great, but in that time we've played Luton, Lincoln, Exeter, Swindon, Vale (when they were in form) and Colchester.

Crucial few days coming up for us with Crawley at home on Tuesday (and only Newport also playing from the top half), so a good chance to open up a gap again, and the FA Cup game with Swansea which, if we could somehow spring a surprise, would bring in significant funds to strengthen in the window.

Our next four in the league are Crawley (H), Crewe (H), Barnet (A), and Carlisle (H). Got to be looking to take advantage.

 

[Luke Imp]

In one respect, it doesn't feel like we've had 18 from 10 with 2 draws and one loss from the last three albeit against Luton and Notts.

Newport and Swindon are our next two and then we hit a horrendous March.

 

[Conker]

In one respect, it doesn't feel like we've had 18 from 10 with 2 draws and one loss from the last three albeit against Luton and Notts.

Newport and Swindon are our next two and then we hit a horrendous March.

Do you think you might drop off a bit with the March run?

 

[Luke Imp]

I think so, yeah.

I actually said earlier in the thread that the signings of Frecklington and Rowe give us a chance of automatics, and I think it gives us a better chance because they're good signings at this level but we miss a bit of 'something' against the top sides in both boxes, which is reflected in our results. Probably summed up in the second half against Notts County where we had 3 or 4 presentable chances but scored 1 and Notts County have one shot and enter our penalty area once and score.

Our record against the current top 7 is P9 W1 D2 L7 GF11 GA16 (6 of those conceded when we had 10 men). That's miles off being the record of a side who'll get automatics. It's our results against bottom half sides which has kept us up there.

 

[AdamStag]

It can make a tidy difference - we've actually done worse against teams down there.

Our record against the top 8 (including the top 8 as we're in there) is W4 D3 and L1 - that includes 2 draws against Luton and Exeter where we basically crucified them but couldn't finish them off - but that's our fault for not being so clinical - the loss was a last minute goal to our friends from Accrington.

 

[AdamStag]

I think so, yeah.

I actually said earlier in the thread that the signings of Frecklington and Rowe give us a chance of automatics, and I think it gives us a better chance because they're good signings at this level but we miss a bit of 'something' against the top sides in both boxes, which is reflected in our results. Probably summed up in the second half against Notts County where we had 3 or 4 presentable chances but scored 1 and Notts County have one shot and enter our penalty area once and score.

Our record against the current top 7 is P9 W1 D2 L7 GF11 GA16 (6 of those conceded when we had 10 men). That's miles off being the record of a side who'll get automatics. It's our results against bottom half sides which has kept us up there.

There's no reason you can't work that to your advantage - you've a more than decent side. Months can make or break sides - ours is february with Swindon (a) Newport (h) Exeter (a) Coventry (h).

All sides will drop points, go on little bad runs, anyone from Notts Co downwards in the top 7 have a realistic chance of dropping outside of the playoffs at some stage. I'm hopeful that with Morecambe (a) and Barnet (h) up next we can get at least 4 points for when/if we have a setback in Feb

 

[LongEatonPie]

We have a decent couple of months now, but if we are having a blip I don’t think it matters who you are playing, confidence is key.
With Crawley on Tuesday we have a chance to put right the wrongs on Saturday. Which was basically Nolan forcing 3 new players into the midfield and throwing out the formation that go us to 2nd.

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

Our record against the top half is what is keeping us here at the moment, we've P14 W9 D1 L4 against the current top 12, P11 W7 L4 against the current top 9. Our record against the basement clubs is shocking though. Only two wins from Barnet, Chesterfield, Forest Green, Yeovil, Crewe and Morecambe in 7 games.

 

[LongEatonPie]

Our £2 a ticket v Crewe seems to be going alright.
16,000 tickets sold so far.
Watch it be a 0-0 or 0-1 to them!

 

[The Reverend Skyblue]

Our £2 a ticket v Crewe seems to be going alright.
16,000 tickets sold so far.
Watch it be a 0-0 or 0-1 to them!

That's a bloody great promotion, £2 a ticket is fantastic from your chairman.
Just hope some of them stay on for the next game.
If SISU offered that price we would still not get over 15000 , they have pissed off too many people.