Newton’s law

Good old Adam Newton – scored a fluke goal, and with complete honesty held his hands up immediately and owned up. I like that. He tried to cross from the right and instead the ball flew over the keeper from a bizarre angle and Luton were one up. Mind you, that was it.

I liked Barrow, they did try and play, though they were a bit poor. We should have scored more. In fact, if Tom Craddock hadn’t fluffed two or three clear chances we would have had more. To give Harford credit, he did have the players playing decent football on the floor – for the first half at least – and we played them off the park.

The ball didn’t go in the air for the first four minutes. I joked to my mate Rob that Harford would fine the first player to put it in the air and we showed that at no point does it have to be hoofed and retaining possession and playing it on the floor is the only way. It was good old Mark Tyler who was the first one to lift it off the floor by the way. I think that the 59-41 possession ratio in Luton’s favour tells a bit of a story, as does the 14 shots to 4 in our favour.

In the second half we sat back a bit more, and the football was not so good. We did make some chances though and went close a couple of times.

With Nico out with a three match ban for his late tackle in the Oxford match we looked more settled than of late. Is it a heresy to say that we are better off without him? Actually I describe it as late, it was so late it was almost in time for this afternoon’s match.

The team was Mark Tyler (who had so little to do that Mick sent him out for training and practise at half time), Gnapka/Gnakpa right back, Pilks and Whitey at centre half, and Murray (hats off to Mick for preferring him to Blackett) at left back.

Both Murray and Gnapka/Gnakpa overlapped well and got good crosses in. Pilks was more solid than a rock and passed the ball nicely, rather than lumping it; and White played well, on one occasion he got forward, and bless him, stayed forward and then stayed forward even more. Looked quite good up front!

In midfield, Keet’ partnered Jarvis in the holding role and Hall played behind the front three.

Up front, Newton, Gallen and Craddock. Craddock out on the left again. Fair play to Craddock, today he did work hard, and should really have had a couple of goals. They were gelling as well, and (much like most of this season) they were creating the chances, but, as before, it is the finishing which has been the problem. I suspect once Craddock gets a bit of confidence and form he will be scoring goals for fun. Two points about Craddock though, he did the most obvious and piss-poor, laughable handball I have seen for many a year. A good cross from Murray (I think) was sailing over his head and he jumped, stuck out an obvious hand and punched it towards the goal. A most foolish thing. And the ref rightly booked him.

Also Craddock supplied me with a perfect example of the phrase “Methinks he doth protest too much”. When presented with another chance after an excellent through ball he missed the target completely and curled it past the post. Making out as if the keeper had got a hand on it (he would have done if he had been 10′ and not a pot-bellied dwaf) he then had a go at the ref, the lino at the far end, the ref again, some of his players and then the lino at our end. Twice. Tom, mate you missed it. Get over it. He was mad and very near to getting another card.

But, in the second half, about 10 mins from the end, hello hello, what’s all this then? A not really fit and leggy Liam Hatch made an appearance with a tattoo of “Plan A” on the back of his head. The most awaited player since Lars Elstrup – possibly.

He looked keen, got himself booked, ran around alot, got on a couple of headers and generally looked a pain and a handful. Good news. Our next game is not until Wrexham away on Tuesday-week and there is a reserve game midweek, so he might even start against Wrexham.

One thing to say is that the ref was a bit rank. He missed three handballs, one of them in the penalty box only slightly less obvious than Craddock’s effort. God knows how he and the lino missed it. Certainly all of the Kenny end went up in unison, amazed that the officials missed it.

Their keeper was a bit of a character. He changed boots in the first half (only to change them back later) and every time a Luton player had a shot on his goal he bellowed at his defenders as if he had caught them in bed with his wife. He was also very unfit. On one occasion he had to sprint out of his goal to intercept a ball and then clear it and he puffed and blowed his way back to his goal line looking like Big Daddy after a jog.

That’s enough for now I think. I quite enjoyed it this afternoon. Some of the football they played was excellent and made for a good game. They needed a second to be secure, and at the back of my mind I could see us cocking it up (like against Salisbury) and draw a game we should have won. But, truthfully, the class was evident for a good portion of the game, if not in front of goal.

Thank goodness for Adam Newton. He was man of the match (even though he ended up as right back, after Gnapka/Gnakpa went off with a sore leg) worked really hard and was the difference between the two sides with his unlikely goal.

So, after 10 games: W5 D4 L1 Pos 2nd.

Thanks for reading, and for the nice comments and messages. Makes it all worthwhile to know that someone is out there. I haven’t got the balls to post a link on the Luton Outlaws website, for all of the grief I would get for my supposedly ‘anti Mick’ stance from those not willing to try to understand what I am saying…ahem

Picture from Luton website, with thanks.