MDF Luton Town v Bristol City 15/03/23

[shatter2]

The best manager in the Championship brings his team to Kenilworth Road this evening. To be fair I listened to Nigel Pearsons pre match press conference and he was quite complimentary about Luton.
Their stats at the moment Won 12  Drawn 12  Lost 12 let's hope the latter changes to 13.
Naismith appears to be injured, but Harry came on as sub on Saturday so let's hope he gets a good reception from the Luton faithful tonight.

No time for trivia today but any nuggets would be welcome.👍

[bms]

Sound familiar?

City’s decline and financial ruin (1980–82)
In 1980, the City team went back to the Second Division in the first of three relegations, their debt mounted and their financial losses increased, with two successive relegations following. Thus, in 1982, they fell into the Fourth Division, and were declared bankrupt. A new club was formed and BCFC (1982) Ltd acquired the club's player contracts. The highly paid senior players became known as the 'Ashton Gate Eight', each accepted termination of his contract for half the amount due. The club's previous owners had failed to pay its debts to many local businesses. The resulting ill will towards the club made it difficult for the new owners to obtain credit

Am hoping for on-field decline and ruin for City this evening. Enjoy and cheer if you’re going, tele for me as trains finishing earlier than usual.

[8two]

[8two]

I guess nobody would argue that the first 45 minutes was outstanding and easily the best entertaining exciting football seen at Kenilworth for many a moon. How can a simple change of management make such a difference in such a short term? beggars belief.

Impossible, in my view, to come up with a MoM, how on earth do you separate so many outstanding individual performances. Looks like we may have to say goodbye to many 3 pm Saturday kickoffs next season.

[bernardshakey]

Liz,I agree the whole team were superb first half especially. The player that caught my eye was Marvellous who ran the game that first half mopping up every loose ball and playing sensible balls to the feet of our creative players. MOM impossible never really liked MOM or leading scorer awards at season's end as above all else its a team game.

[8two]

Mar 16, 2023 10:33:46 GMT bernardshakey said:

Liz,I agree the whole team were superb first half especially. The player that caught my eye was Marvellous who ran the game that first half mopping up every loose ball and playing sensible balls to the feet of our creative players. MOM impossible never really liked MOM or leading scorer awards at season's end as above all else its a team game.

and this lot bernard are a team with no noticeable egos.

[proudhattersince74]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" We are doing so superbly well ATM but I do wonder if it could be better. Our performance in the first half was sublime even if the finishing (and refereeing) was somewhat substandard in comparison to our build up play.

For the benefit of our fans' collective hearts, should RE make changes earlier (much earlier) than he does? In general we are starting matches superbly - fast out of the blocks, first to the punch and rock the opposition back onto their heels. But we then seem to run out of steam after half time when, in most cases, the opposition have had a half time rollicking from their managers and are chasing a goal if they're behind. I'm not saying that we wilt but the signs are there that we do look more far more vulnerable and I can only attribute that to the collective energy expended in the first halves. For the PNE, Coventry and Bristol City games we should have been out of sight by HT - full time whistle couldn't come soon enough at Coventry and last night.

2-0 up vs WBA but pegged back once we conceded just before HT and gave them something to chase - mind you, we were chasing shadows ourselves during that first half and it could have been 4-4 after 45 minutes. But there was only one winner once they got their equaliser.

Chatting on my way home to my mate and we both thought that RE should have refreshed the legs a bit earlier than the Woodrow for Morrison substitution, especially with another hard game coming up in 72 hours. We do seem to be able to thrust periphery players into the team and get a decent tune out of them (Berry, Osho, Campbell, Fred) so would we be better off taking such risks to re-energise the midfield/front line when we are a goal up and seemingly hanging on by our fingernails to the lead?

FWIW, I must say Osho and Campbell have been immense stand-ins. I'm not even sure if Osho can be classed as a 'stand-in' now, such has been his improvement. He is an integral part of a defence that has conceded very few goals from open play and there were two foot races with Harry that he won and dealt with confidently and competently. Campbell is looking to be back to the Campbell of last season, which is brilliant to see, especially as Pelly will be AWL for most of the rest of the season (if not all of it).

COYH.

[shatter2]

Agree Proud but our last two away games Sheff Utd and Birmingham we were quick out of the blocks with two early goals second half.

[proudhattersince74]

Shatter, I think we were quick out of the blocks at the very start of both of those games but couldn't capitalise if/when chances came along, albeit that they were few and far between.

Ironically, we scored against Sheffield United when they were having their best period just after HT.

With regard to Brum, the less said the better about the general quality (not the effort) on the concrete hard pitch - we weren't slow starting but were relatively slow adapting to the atrocious pitch. We were resolute at the back but a horrible game to endure as a spectator. As you say, we once we upped the tempo at the start of the second half, it proved to be enough ... just! Although I'd be more than willing to take nine more like that, I'm not sure my heart would approve.