MDF+Trivia. Luton Town Norwich City 26/12/22

[shatter2]

Last home game of the year against the Canaries tomorrow night,  Boxing Day? well just about must be the latest match ever played on the 26th December!
If we do the double over them will Dean Smith go the same way as Steve Bruce come Tuesday morning?
Anyway those who do turn up give the lads and our new manager a good reception. COYH!

As for trivia over to you if you have any.  Merry Christmas and some memorable matches and points in the New Year!!

[lutonloyal]

Can't sleep, having an uncomfortable night.

Health pending, hopefully I'll be attending my 1,945th Luton game tonight and 1,265th at Kenilworth Road. I'll either see my 835th Town win, or 509th draw, preferably not my 603rd defeat.

It will be the 22nd time I'll have seen the Canaries at Kenilworth Road since the first time in 1970 - to date - 8 Luton wins, four draws and 9 defeats.

To any interested, here are the 21 KR fixtures I've seen:

1970-71 Div 2, Luton 0 NCFC 0 Att: 16,110

1971-72 Div 2, Luton 1 (Don Givens pen) NCFC 1 Att: 12,428

1981-82 Div 2, Luton 2 (Brian Stein, Billy Jennings) NCFC 0 Att: 15,061

1982-83 Div 1, Luton 0 NCFC 1 Att: 11,211

1983-84 Div 1, Luton 2 (Paul Elliott, Brian Stein) NCFC 2 Att: 11,095

1984-85 Div 1, Luton 3 (Meka Nwajiobi 2, David Modo pen) NCFC 1 Att: 8,794

1985-86 League Cup 3, Luton 0 NCFC 2 Att: 8,202

1986-87 Div 1, Luton 0 NCFC 0 Att: 10,022

1987-88 Div 1, Luton 1 (Brian Stein) NCFC 2 Att: 7,002

1988-89 Div 1, Luton 1 (Danny Wilson pen) NCFC 0 Att: 10,862

1989-90 Div 1, Luton 4 (Kingsley Black, John Dreyer, Danny Wilson, Steve Williams (his only LTFC goal) NCFC 1 Att: 9,038

1990-91 Div 1, Luton 0 NCFC 1 Att: 8,604

1991-92 Div 1, Luton 2 (David Preece RIP, Mick Harford) NCFC 0 Att: 8,554

1995-96 Div 1 (old Div 2), Luton 1 (Bontcho Guentchev pen) NCFC 3 Att: 7,848

1996-97 Friendly, Luton 4 NCFC 2 Att: 2,719

2001-02 Friendly Luton 1 NCFC 3 Att: 3,284

2005-06 Championship (old Div 2), Luton 4 (Warren Feeney, Carlos Edwards, Peter Holmes, Steve Howard) NCFC 2 Att: 10,248

2006-07 Championship (old 2), Luton 2 (Bjorn Runstron, Drew Talbot) NCFC 3 Att: 8,868

2018-19 Friendly, Luton 1 NCFC 3 Att: 2,957

2019-20 Friendly, Luton 1 NCFC 5 Att: 4,218

2020-21 Championship (old Div 2), Luton 3 (Matty Pearson, George Moncur, James Collins pen) NCFC 1 Att: 1,000 * Covid restricted.

[shatter2]

Great stats LL.👍

[bms]

Get well soon LL. As Ironman said/says 'Let's do this Luton!'

[8two]

[greeno]

Never in any doubt …

[greeno]

We wanted it more, even with 10 men we brought on an attacking player 💥

[8two]

I wasn't there but the poor resolution of the ESPN stream I found (I refuse to pay for something I've already paid for) didn't detract from a wonderful team performance.

Two things of note for me. Pelly playing in the opponents half far more than under Jones and dumping the fallacy that Woodrow is a number 10 as again under NJ.

I enjoyed the USA chants for our keeper and if I was forced to choose a man of the match, would go for Osho closely followed by Pelly.

[Wimbo]

I thought we turned in a great performance last night; masses of commitment from every player in a Luton shirt coupled with exceptional performances from Lockyer, Clarke & Doughty: all aided by the real Pelly turning up. I am a big fan of Pelly but really never know which one will turn up: Mr Sleepy or Mr Strong.

I see that Gabe Osho is taking a lot of stick on social media for his two yellows but to my mind:-
a) The first yellow was very harsh
b) The second yellow was really taking one for the team; just imagine if he had let Pukki past and he had scored “why did you not drag him back”. Note: Pukki is a fine & well-seasoned player whilst Gabe is learning how to play the game at Championship level.

[biscot boy]

I fully agree with your comments Bill, especially re Osho. He looks to me as though he could develop into a really good player, pacy, strong in the tackle, tactically aware. I thought his first half booking was an absolute shocker it was a good clean hard tackle, if these are going to be penalised we may as well watch tiddlywinks.

[greeno]

Yes agree re. Gabe Osho, he had a good game, if the first one was a yellow then … I don’t know what to say. Mick McArthy said it was a great tackle and never a yellow card, so we must be right.

[greeno]

If you bought a programme last night and read all the adverts … as we all do, the G M Devs ad is my sons business. Anybody need their GMs developed he’s your man. If plugging is allowed here?

[lutonloyal]

So glad I went last night, even though I felt very poorly. The pre match couple of pints in the Bobbers actually did me a favour, as I had my best night's sleep in a while.

Terrific game and Town performance. Three very good goals, a sending off that Osho took for the team - had he not fouled Pukki we probably would not have won that last night! .....one cleared off the line in time added on to clinch a deserved three points and my 835th Luton win. Not one Town player had a poor game. I thought Pelly (& I'm not his greatest fan) had his best game since returning. Kudos Rob Edwards for the brave substitutions, going for a win with 10 men. I have a feeling Nathan Jones would have tried to hold on for the draw.

Although only midway (12th/24) we are just two points behind a play off position, with a game in hand. Happy Hatter today.
Onwards and upwards, will have to miss the away games at QPR (work commitments) and Huddersfield (aiming to be out New Years Eve at the Cali R, health pending, just can't do both sadly) so all being well Wigan FA Cup on Jan 7th my next game.

[proudhattersince74]

NJ brought the ingredients and used a blender - Edwards mixed them by hand. Just little details and tweaks seemed to make us purr without backfiring - it certainly looked like the players were a bit more enthused but I think that was massively helped by them having a bit more energy at the end of the game (despite having to run 10% harder to cover Osho's early bath). Not being asked to chase quite so hard from first-to-last whistles but being more selective in when and where to chase.

Plus the facts that (1) Edwards seemed to have picked up the whole team up and moved them 5 yards higher up the pitch before putting them down again - we played further from our own goal but also it also compressed the opposition's space in which to play, making it slightly easier to press and harass; (2) our general player movement off the ball (but when we were in possession as a team) looked better. There were far more options, easier options and better options available to the player looking for an 'out ball'. TBH, I think a lot of that was down to the fact that we had two wing backs who were far more involved and made themselves available - sorry, but Bell simply doesn't offer the same as Doughty so we usually attack down one flank and only pin back one opposition wing back.

Pelly looked like he was given a new power pack for Christmas along with an ungraded processor! I've always liked Pelly and tried to defend his selections when he wasn't quite switched on but it was so good to see him getting back to something akin to his best - sharper, faster, stronger ... those World Cup weeks look to have been a blessing for him, especially as he was clearly 'forced' to play some 90 minute matches immediately he was available for first team selection despite no pre-season. I thought Pelly was the main catalyst for Clark and Campbell to threaten the Norwich penalty are more - Pelly seemed to cover more left-to-right rather than box-to-box and that allowed the others, Campbell in particular, to support our front line.

That noted, Pelly's first misplaced pass received a mouthful of abuse from someone behind me - unbelievable!

I'm trying to imagine just how good Doughty could be if we could get a reliable LB or LWB. Early in the second half Doughty gave chase to a long ball that was three postcodes ahead of him and he outstripped the Norwich FB even if he did only just fail to reach the ball. If we can, Doughty's pace should be exploited as we know he has a clever footballing brain to accompany it. Oh and thank you, Alfie, for the goal line clearance in the 96th minute!

Did Edwards do anything wrong? I must confess that I thought he was wrong to bring Freeman on before Berry when Campbell tired (similar to my thoughts at Boro). And I still think Berry would be a more appropriate sub due to his greater pace and recovery skillset ... BUT, it was Freeman's close ball skills that moved us to the position to win the throw-in from which we scored! So did Edwards do anything wrong? Yes, but no, but yes, but no!

Shame about Adebayo's injury.

Bigger shame about Osho's red card and absence from QPR. What an absolutely appalling decision by the referee for the first booking. Given it was on TV for the world to see, I sincerely hope that the referee takes a hard look at his performance and acknowledges that Mr Cock-up came a visiting, not that it would do us or Osho any good. I truly believe that he was the only person in the whole ground that saw Osho's challenge as a foul but then compounded his incompetence by booking Osho ... refereeing incompetence squared! You only need to look at the collective throwing up of arms from virtually all of the Luton players in the TV shot to know just how wrong that decision was. None of which allows for the officials missing a handball before the non-foul challenge.

Great performance that must have been draining - hoping for something similar in the next couple may be too expectant given the lack of recovery days.

Oh and nearly forgot to mention Potts: I thought he was immense considering the injury that he had and the fact that last night was his first full game for a number of weeks and I guess his training has been VERY restricted during that time. I read some criticism of him for Pukki's goal but come on, get real FFS! If my team had defenders who didn't make any mistakes then I wouldn't be watching Luton!

COYH!


PS It so nearly happened but how apt would it have been if we managed to score during the minute's applause for Fred Young?

[bms]

A great match and a great win, the double over Norwich. Felt we were given time and space by Norwich (see Biscot's shouts about their lack of commitment) but even so, our commitment and energy throughout was oustanding. Thought Doughty had his best game yet for us, he was everywhere, including, when it really mattered, on our goaline. Terrific run and strike from Campbell and a sensational winner from Cauley Woodrow. I'll be glad to see Bell available for selection again, particularly as Osho will miss out. Was suprised that he wasn't subbed as game went on but that was Edwards' only 'mistake' in my book. A quick shout for Bree - that free kick and many of his crosses were excellent.
Interesting to see the few shots of Edwards at key points during the game - such a contrast to Nathan. When Cauley scored, he barely celebrated, possibly mindful of Norwich's potential to score again or perhaps because he was really feeling the pressure of expectation, who knows. Anyway, I think it will be a while before we see him slobbering over the badge. Congrats to him, his assistants and the players for delivering our first win under new management.