What a mixed bag that was and it showed up both good and bad in our current team.
1st and 2nd halves chalk and cheese yet again.
1st half. They had obviously done their homework and pressed high when we had possession and played route 1 and/or crosses into the general region of our box at every opportunity. Our penchant for making lovely patterns with our passes, regardless of whether it brought progress or not, gave them ample time to drop back and defend in depth. We were, basically, toothless tigers in the opening 45. Our only shot on target was a complete mis-hit from Rooney that wouldn't have worried an 86 year old granny with a zimmer frame. I was more than happy to go in at 0-0. Defensively? Well, we struggled to clear at times and made life more difficult than it should have been. On the attacking front, the almost total lack of movement ahead of them gave our defence just the 2 choices, namely, play keep ball or hit and hope long balls. When we did, eventually, get into the attacking third, we almost always cut inside into the jam-packed centre of the pitch, thereby making it even easier for them to defend against us. Our own worst enemies in fact. It's time our players realsied that, out of a game lasting 96 minutes, they will, if they are lucky, have the ball at their feet for maybe 2 of those minutes. That means that what you do off the ball is way more important than what you do on the ball.
2nd half. There was more urgency in our play and we started to dominate. They still caused us problems on the break and in a couple of passages of play in which they controlled the game for several minutes. We go 1 up, a deflected Rooney shot. To me that was an o.g. because the original shot was straight at their keeper and he would have had it. They equalise and then go 2-1 up from 2 deadball situations. That should surprise noone as we still have issues in that department. Cracking header from Martin for our equaliser. Poor defending led to their 3rd. Somewhere in between was a great stop with his right foot by Hamer. Lawro mis-hit a great chance that hit the bar via the floor, should have been a simple goal.
Other incidents from the game.
When the defender went through Lawrence in the 1st half, how was that not a penalty?
Their player went down asking for a penalty, obvious dive. Why no card?
Bogle's card. Only his 2nd foul (IMO the first shouldn't have been given anyway). It was only given because it was the 5th or 6th foul on Lua Lua (Knight responsible for most of them). Unlucky.
The "back pass". Why didn't the ref give the foul for the push in Lowe's back? When Lowe played the ball, Hamer was central in his area. He had to move 10 to 12 yards to his left to field the ball. Back pass? Most refs wouldn't have given it. Then the red card..... as soon as Lowe pulled the arm of the ref, I knew it was coming. The ref was right.
Yet again, we had an unsatisfactory ref who, had he made the right decisions as opposed to the wrong ones, could have made winning a much easier prospect.
As it was, the way it panned out, kudos to Luton who, having gone behind, went for it and put us under pressure playing to our weaknesses.
We need to sort out these perennial slow starts. Get at the opposition from the off and, FFS, go down the outside like we did for Martin's goal.
Conclusion: we could, and should, have beaten them. We didn't play the right way to beat them and, surprise, surprise, we lost.
Hamer - probably our MOTM
Bogle - unlucky with the card. Should go down the outside more often
Wisdom - I can't remember huge errors from him but his distribution was not to his usual standard
Clarke - Had a good game but again not up to the levels he ahs shown of late. A couple of unnecessary losses of possession
Lowe - Another who had a good game. A couple of errors but used his speed to get back and make amends. Stupid for the red but, as I wrote earlier, should have had a free kick and, had the ref missed that but got his "back pass" decision right, it wouldn't have kicked off.....
Holmes - another who played OK but not up to recent levels.
Rooney - Scored a deflected goal but seemed to play safe for much of the game. Average
Bird - Another who didn't play as well as he has been
Lawro - No end product. Still can't tackle. Anonymous for a lot of the game ad mis-hit a sitter
Waghorn - "put in a shift" but his 1st touch leaves a lot to be desired. I still don't understand why he doesn't jump for the long, high balls, preferring instead to back into the defender.
Knight - A couple of flashes but yet another who failed to play up to his own standards.