Luton manager Jack Wilshire caused a stir before today’s game at the Cardiff City Stadium when he claimed his team, in seventh place going into the match having having won just two games more than they’ve lost, were as good as top of the table City and it was only our consistency that had us eighteen points above them.
Now, when it comes to the point about our consistency against Lutron’s, Wilshire was, surely, just stating the bleeding obvious. However, clearly, it was the bit about his team being the equal of ours in terms of ability that the media seized on and it was no surprise when BBM was asked for his opinion on what the Luton manager had to say in his pre match press conference on Thursday.
For me, our manager got his reply spot on when he said Wilshire might well be right and he went on to praise the Luton squad which, let’s face it, were many people’s pick to finish as Champions before the season started.
Certainly, it seemed to me that for every one pundit who thought we would finish first, there were twenty who tipped Luton. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that there is a lot of talent employed at Kenilworth Road and that, on paper at least, there is little between them and us.
So, this became a side issue to pay attention to during the game – were the unbeaten in ten league leaders that produced what I’ve seen widely described as one of the great ten v eleven performances in their last match going to be able to lay a glove on the seventh placed under achievers?
I’m being sarcastic there because I believe that there wasn’t much between them in terms of ability. However, as I’ve got older, I’ve come to believe that momentum and spirit can top basic ability nine times out of ten in the professional game where, even in the lower divisions, a degree of way above average ability is a given whether we’re talking individually or collectively.
City had little in the momentum and spirit department last May, but they have it in spades now and this is allowing them to show the ability that many City fans, I wouldn’t be one of them, insist was there all of the time (I still feel we have so much to be grateful to Brian Barry-Murphy for). Luton, on the other hand, weighed down by successive relegations and what has to be seen as a disappointing campaign this time around, have hardly any momentum, spirit must be low and so the ability they have is only seen sporadically.
On to today’s game then, were Luton able to prove their manager right and were City able to prove their manager wrong with regard to his Luton might be better than us comment?
Well, the answers to those questions were pretty conclusive really – no in Luton’s case and yes when it came to City!
I mentioned the term lay a glove on earlier and I did so while bearing in mind that I would be returning to a boxing theme when outlining how the game panned out.
Luton were the experienced campaigners who’d been mixing it with the best not too long ago and were still capable of doing so now on their day, while City were the hungry young bucks on their way up who have recently started showing a destructive punch.
In the early minutes, Luton felt City’s punching power as Ollie Tanner, Joel Bagan and Omari Kellyman all came close.
However, Luton were sent sprawling to the canvas on ten minutes as Joel Colwill, in the midst of a second successive superb performance, drove forward into the penalty area and despite having three Luton players around him, managed to pick out David Turnbull who dispatched a classy half volley from fifteen yards out of the reach of Josh Keeley – it was a fine goal, but it won’t be considered as a contender for goal of the season in this season where fine goals have become commonplace..
Luton cleared their heads and their response to this setback was impressive as they started to show that their press and work in possession presented them as one of the better footballing sides to visit Cardiff City Stadium this season.
Less than ten minutes after going ahead, it was City who were having to take a count as neat work by Devante Cole sent Isiah Jones clear of Joel Bagan and their response when the full back brought down the winger as he closed in on goal for what looked a clear penalty was interesting. The reaction of Jones and one or two other visiting players made clear their disappointment that referee Ollie Yates deemed Bagan’s offense only to be worthy of a yellow card. I thought Luton had a point, but, apparently a change in the way referees interpret such situations in that red cards should not be shown for what is thought to be a genuine attempt to play the ball is now in force and so I reckon the ref got it right.
Nathan Trott got very close to Jordan Clark’s penalty, but it was too well placed for him and so Luton were level and for the next ten minutes or so, they gave as good as they got as they began to give themselves a chance of proving their manager’s support for them was not misplaced.
The experienced Kasey Palmer was at the heart of Luton’s improvement as, being used in a deeper position than normal, he was showing himself to still be a very good technician – especially at this level.
However, the game turned on an incident where City’s youthful exuberance made Palmer look slow and unable to cope with our intense high pressing. Palmer was ambushed by Tanner, Turnbull and Colwill and suddenly the last named was bearing down on goal with Kellyman unmarked inside him. Colwill didn’t need Kellyman though as he coolly took advantage of a poorly positioned Keeley to steer the ball into the corner from the edge of the penalty area.
If Luton had been able to recover from their first knockdown, this second one had them needing the ropes to keep them up as they tried to make it to half time without further damage.
City’s cultured clogger Perry Ng ensured this would not happen though as he came up with City’s latest contender for that goal of the season award on forty two minutes. Ng was having a great time of it already as he emphasized the culture rather than what is called shithousery these days. There was, of course, the obligatory Ng nutmeg as he showed what a very good footballer he is at this level. Even so, there was nothing to suggest we were going to see the 25 yard howitzer that ended a period of smooth, but slowish, passing by flying into the roof of the net to give City a healthy lead in a game which looked full of goals at this stage.
Down for a third time, Luton barely beat the count this time and were holding on desperately as Gabriel Osho headed on to the woodwork from a free kick and Tanner’s shot seconds later was deflected a foot wide- there also could have been a City penalty when the ball hit Gideon Kodua’s arm, but Mr Yates probably believed he was so close to the to ball when it was played that he couldn’t get out of the way when it hit him.
City went in at half time with Luton reeling under the barrage of punches they’d faced late in the half – they had not been able to live with us after we’d produced a performance to match last week’s at Rotherham.
To continue the boxing analogy, having built up a substantial lead, City spent the second half “staying out of range” and they succeeded in this to the extent that Clark’s spot kick remained Luton’s only on target effort of the game.
The low key second half only threatened a fifth goal on a couple of occasions as Chris Willock’s shot was turned aside on his near post by Keeley. Then, in added time, Rubin Colwill, making a most welcome twenty minute return as he replaced his brother after three months out with injury, burst past his marker to lay a chance on a plate for another sub, Callum Robinson. It really should have been 4-1, but Keeley was able to divert the close range shot over.
The post match stats (or judge’s cards!) told the story of City’s domination – 60/40 possession against the team with the second best possession stats in the division, 18 goal attempts to three (seven on target to one) and 29 touches in the opposition penalty area to 12,
City were the much better team on the day and, leaving aside arguments about Wiltshire’s pre match opinion, I’d say we showed how much we’ve improved since we were very reliant on Nathan Trott for our early season win at Kenilworth Road.
By doing our bit by picking up three points, we ensured it would be good news whatever the outcome of the second v third, Lincoln v Bolton match. My preference would have been a Lincoln win I think because that would have meant a gap of eleven points to third, but a 1-1 draw which puts us four points off ahead of Lincoln and ten in front of Bolton, with a far better goal difference, is not too shabby – we’ve also broken our win – draw – win – draw sequence,
Stockport didn’t play today, while Bradford had a good 2-0 win over Peterborough to climb above Huddersfield who were beaten 1-0 at Stevenage, Reading are up to seventh following their 3-2 win over Wycombe, but they’re some twenty points behind us.
