MDF Luton Town v Blackpool 23/04/22

[shatter2]

The Seasiders visit Kenilworth Road tomorrow having beaten a poor Brum side 6-1 on Easter Monday. This was after five matches without a win for the Tangerines.
We need three points for a place in the playoffs (probably!) but once again our injury problems increased with Bree and Shea both in the treatment room after the win in Cardiff.
With Blackpool not selling all their ticket allocation an extra couple of hundred Luton fans will swell the Oak Road, let's cheer the lads on to a three in a row victory. COYH!!!

No Trivia from me for this one but if you have anything interesting would be glad to hear it.

[8two]

Can't think of Blackpool without the 'wizard of dribble' coming instantly to my mind. The first football Knight who said he learnt his skill by running along the promenade at Blackpool dodging in and out of the holidaymakers. I saw him at Kenilworth Road, where he didn't impress, allegedly not being a fan of the ground. Luton's method of stopping him was for Jimmy Adam, a good left winger, tracking back every time the ball went anywhere near Matthews. I'm old enough to have watched the 1953 Wembley Cup Final on our TV which had been specifically purchased for the Coronation. Those were the days when live TV football was an occasion to savour.

[bms]

Excellent post Liz.
Hope Blackpool don't like a)the ground and b) the result tomorrow. After two consecutive superb battling performances, is it too much to hope for a third?
A win could potentially give some players a break before the playoffs begin if results again go our way.

[shatter2]

Yes good post Liz, I too saw Stan Matthews early 60's playing for Stoke.He was really getting on then late 40's, the ref protected him I seem to remember blew for a foul every time he was tackled.
In 1961/62 season Stoke won promotion to the 1st Div when they beat us 2-0 in their last home game, Matthews scored one of the goals.

[8two]

Played his last professional game in England at the age of 50 for Stoke. Quotes from two other greats, Franz Beckenbauer said that the speed and skill Matthews possessed meant that "almost no one in the game could stop him" and John Charles noted that "he was the best crosser I've ever seen". He played his final game of football for an England Veterans XI against a Brazil Veterans XI in Brazil in 1985 at the age of 70; the English lost 6–1 to the likes of Amarildo, Tostão, and Jairzinho. He damaged his cartilage during the match: "a promising career cut tragically short", he wrote in his autobiography.

Text copied from wiki.

[lutonloyal]

Excellent post Liz. The only time I ever saw Stanley Matthews was on March 9th 1968 when we beat Port Vale 2-0 at KR Div 4 in front of 12,749. Ian Buxton RIP and Bruce Rioch scored for us.

Sir Stanley was Vale Manager then.

Evidently he was allegedly the main instigator behind Blackpool complaining about the Kenilworth Road poor quality floodlights for our 1959 FA Cup QF Replay and the reason the FA insisted it had to be played un the afternoon - when many of the town that day caught 'LTFC Flu' !

[lutonloyal]

Today will be my 1,924th Luton match attending and the 1,250th at Kenilworth Road.


I have a pretty good home record v Blackpool. In 13 clashes attended to date from 1972 - 2019, I've only seen us lose once, draw 3 and win Nine.


To any interested here are the 13 to date:


1971-72 Div 2 Luton 1 ( Mike Keen RIP) BFC 4 Att: 7,270 -

In 5 and a half years of supporting Luton, this was the first time I had ever heard us booed off the pitch at HT when 0-3 down. We did at least show great spirit in the 2nd half by having a real go - that's all supporters should ever insist - TRY! This was at the time my heaviest Luton home defeat, which would last until Everton thrashed us 5-1 in 1983 - since then beaten with both Man Utd in 1984 and Sunderland 2007 thrashing us 5-0 - COVID Lockdown v Reading in 2020 and still very ill with it in August last year v Birmingham, meant I missed attending both those two 0-5 horror shows


1975-76 Div 2 Luton 3 ( Ron Futcher 2, Lil Fuccillo) BFC 0 Att: 8,757 -

The full LTFC teenage debuts of a fellow lodger at my Nan's (Graham Jones 16) and Sir Ricky Hill 17. On the basis of God's 5 min wonder substitute debut 5 days before on Easter Monday v Bristol Rovers when he set up Brian Chambers with his first touch, then scored a peach with his second - an extra 1,000 + Hatters attended on the strength of this !


1976-77 Div 2 Luton 0 BFC 0 Att: 9,163 -

My main memories of this was the game being played on an ice rink of a pitch that would never be allowed to start today - and a massive scrap on the Kenny terrace - with not a Luton fan involved! Man Utd had their game called off in London and some of their fans came to watch our match - with a mob of West Ham following them hence the punch up!


1977-78 Div 2 Luton 4 ( Alan West, Ron Futcher, Phil Boersma, Lil Fuccillo) BFC 0 Att: 6,041 -

I went up to the away game at Blackpool in the October. They beat us 2-1 to go 4th in the table with us 5th. After this KR match in the March when we thrashed the Seasiders, we had both only slightly dropped to 7th and 8th places - only for us to end the season in 13th/22 & Blackpool 20th/22 - and them RELEGATED on the last day!


1982-83 League Cup 3 Luton 4 ( Billy Kellock 2, Frank Bunn, David Moss) BFC 2 Att: 6,409 -

The only two goals Scotsman Billy Kellock scored in 9 LTFC apps


1997-98 Div 2 (old Div 3) Luton 3 (Tony Thorpe 3) BFC 0 Att: 5,574 -

I was obviously there, but truth be told cannot remember any of it!


1998-99 Div 2 ( old 3) Luton 1 ( Stuart Douglas) BFC 0 Att: 4,646 -

Ditto 97-98


1999-00 Div 2 (old 3) Luton 3 ( Liam George 2, Matthew Spring) BFC 2 Att: 5,176 -

I DO remember this very entertaining opening home game of a season when we were in our first Administration and only allowed to kick off the season at Notts County (0-0) the week before - literally minutes before the midnight deadline !
We had reverted back to Orange as a home strip in 1999-00 and put in a fabulous display against the Seasiders...........only then to be hanging on for the last 5 mins due to a pair of howlers by keeper Nathan Abbey


2003-04 Div 2 (old 3) Luton 3 ( Emerson Boyce, Peter Holmes, Enoch Showunmi) BFC 2 Att: 6,343 -

This was my first home game for over two years due to my enforced 'rest' and that's all you're getting. Read my new book for full details lol


2004-05 League 1 (old Div 3) Luton 1 (Steve Howard) BFC 0 Att: 7,816


2016-17 League 2 ( old Div 4) Luton 1 ( Ollie Palmer) BFC 0 Att: 7,968 -

One of three Ollie Palmer goals in his 18 LTFC apps


2016-17 League 2 (old Div 4) Play Off Semi Final 2nd leg Luton 3 ( Mellor o.g, Scott Cuthbert, Danny Hylton Pen) BFC 3 Blackpool won 6-5 on agg) Att: 10,032 -

That cruel ending on the night when Blackpool went through on aggregate in the dying seconds still hurts. Even more so considering we had led in the away leg and also did a league double over them!


2018-19 League 1 (old Div 3) Luton 2 ( James Collins, Jason Cummings) BFC 2 Att: 10,028 -

James Collins had given us an early lead then it all started to go wrong. Blackpool equalised on 30 mins and Collo then was sent off just after the hour. Virtue made it 2-1 Blackpool a minute later, but on loan Scot Jason Cummings rescued a point 4 mins from time with his only LTFC goal in 5 apps. This kept our club record unbeaten run of a staggering 28 league games without loss going - only to lose it at Charlton the next week 3-1.

[greeno]

Good trivia gents. I was at that Port Vale game Alan.

[bms]

Would have been great to have held that lead but was always unlikely with such a patched up lineup and such weary players. Terrific point in the end- 7 from the last 3 games. Teams below us have it all to do.

[8two]

Started well but followed by 90 odd minutes of boredom. Not really surprising, we are down to the bare bones without  ligaments to hold them together. Several today decided to have poor games with special mentions for Bradley and Naismith who were pale imitations of what we expect of them.

Any pats on the back are minimal. Isted palmed, caught and kicked, most of the time, well, Adebayo was my Luton man of the match for another 100 percent effort and that's about it.

At this stage of the season, a point is welcome but if if if Jerome had directed his header or if Admiral's goal stood, it could have been playoffs achieved.

[shadylane]

Pale imitations they may have been, but no one 'decides' to have a poor game.

[proudhattersince74]

If I were to hit the correct keys on my keyboard about the officiating today then I'll be banned from this site.

Overall we were garbage today yet still created several acceptable chances that we simply didn't accept! But it's so difficult to swallow that disallowed goal when the only person in the stadium who thought it was a foul was the **** with the flag. Jeez, he must come from one of Nottingham, Sheffield, Middlesbrough or Bermondsey to come up with that decision. He may have apologised to NJ but that is not acceptable at this level and I hope the assessor relegates him back to the level where he has to change into his kit in his car. We were told at the start of the season that more physicality was going to be acceptable so the 'tumble-to-the-ground-for-no-reason-brigade' wouldn't benefit. TBH, I thought the referee had as good a view of the incident as the lino so he is almost as culpable for not discussing it post goal and over-ruling the flag.

Would we have been worthy winners? Nah! Blackpool were impressive in their movement, pressing (in particular), crisp passing and quality of crossing. With the exception of Barnsley (away), whenever we have played two big men up top they are usually too far apart to make any impact on three defenders - we can only dream that they play as many flick-ons as Blackpool's strikers managed today. With two mobile big targets, they didn't mess around with hitting long high passes and they were pretty darn good at judging the weight of them - beyond our back line but not usually running into Oak/Kenilworth Road.

Found it interesting that as soon as Naismith was dropped back into defence and out of midfield that Campbell suddenly appeared to become a more influential figure. It was almost as though Campbell didn't quite know where to be with Naismith trying to get 'too' involved with everything.


I really hope, if we do make the POs, that Clark can be made fit and risked to bolster our midfield. Similarly, Burke was a big miss today once the size of their forwards and their tactics to involve them became evident. Hope Burke isn't another long term absentee.

COYH

[8two]

Apr 23, 2022 17:46:55 GMT shadylane said:

Pale imitations they may have been, but no one 'decides' to have a poor game.

think you may have took that remark a bit too  literally shady

[hattersussex]

Well all I am going to say is...I think that was the worst game of football I have watched in a long time...we were simply awful, yet we could have won the match !
The only player who I thought did well, was Isted ! I was more than happy with a point, and I think a draw was a fair result for us.
I believe we will certainly make the play-offs...It's in the lap of the gods, and they could be rooting for us !!

[shadylane]

Apr 23, 2022 18:30:13 GMT 8two said:

Apr 23, 2022 17:46:55 GMT shadylane said:

Pale imitations they may have been, but no one 'decides' to have a poor game.

think you may have took that remark a bit too  literally shady

God forbid anyone says it about Pelly though eh?