Luton Town 5
Wrexham 1

Saturday 06 November 2004 @ 15:00

MATCH STATS

Score and Scorers

Luton Town 5 Wrexham 1
Steve Robinson 13' Hector Sam 73'
Sol Davies 17'    
Stephen O'Leary 22'    
Steve Howard 44'    
Ahmet Brkovic 62'    

Starting Line Ups

Luton Town Wrexham
28 Simon Royce 13 Matt Baker
02 Kevin Foley 18 Shaun Pejic
12 Chris Coyne 04 Steve Roberts
20 Curtis Davies 06 Dennis Lawrence
24 Sol Davies 20 Simon Spender
06 Paul Underwood 16 Matt Crowell
11 Steve Robinson 57' 10 Darren Ferguson
15 Stephen O'Leary 03 Alex Smith 63'
18 Ahmet Brkovic 19 Andy Holt
09 Rowan Vine 81' 09 Chris Armstrong 63'
19 Steve Howard 11 Chris Llewellyn 72'

Substitutes

Luton Town Wrexham
05 Russell Perrett 17 Mark Jones
14 Michael Leary 57' 21 Levi Macken 63'
16 Enoch Showunmi 81' 23 Hector Sam 72'
21 Keith keane 24 Danny Evans (GK)
25 Dino Seremet (GK) 30 Juan Ugarte 63'

Yellow and Red Cards

Luton Town Wrexham

None

77'

Hector Sam - Unsporting Behaviour
   

87'

Juan Ugarte - Unsporting Behaviour

Stat Attack

Luton Town Wrexham
13 Shots on Goal 14
8 Shots on Target 4
19 Fouls Committed 7
3 Corners 6
0 Yellow Card 2
0 Red Card 0

Match Notes

Venue: Racecourse Ground Attendance: 7,144
Referee: Mike Thorpe - Suffolk Half Time: 4-0 Luton
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MATCH REPORT

By Alun Thomas

PRE-MATCH THOUGHTS? Of course the situation off the pitch is uppermost in most people’s minds, but the team have put together a tidy sequence of results recently – seven games unbeaten in league and cup. Today, though, we’re without Dibble, Whitley, Carey, Williams and Edwards – probably half Denis’s preferred starting lineup.

CONDITIONS? A pleasant stroll through picturesque streets to Kenilworth Road, which sparkled in the late autumn sunshine. Not. In fact, the ground looked even more depressing than usual on a damp, drizzly day in this grimmest of grim-as-a-factory-wall Home Counties towns. Good footer weather, though.

SUM UP OUR PERFORMANCE IN ONE SENTENCE? All teams have a collective off-day at least once a season, and it was our misfortune that this one came at the league leaders ; much more of this, though, and, as Bob Dylan would have it : “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”.

TURNING POINT? It just might have been Armstrong’s shocking early miss, which summed up his sluggish performance today. If he’d scored………

MAIN INCIDENTS AND GOALS?

0 – 15 Minutes: Scrappy early exchanges with neither side particularly impressive. On ten minutes, Llewellyn beat the keeper to long ball, his cross-cum-shot was cleared off the line and Armstrong somehow shot over from four yards. Everybody misses ‘em, but frankly a striker of Chris’s experience and ability should have scored. After thirteen minutes a long cross from the left found Luton’s Robinson tearing in at the far post ; his headed goal was a formality. Score 1 - 0.

15 – 30 Minutes: On seventeen minutes, a really well worked goal from the hosts who look Championship bound. Two or three sharp, penetrating passes and a pull-back to the unmarked Davis who notched crisply. Five minutes later our left flank was ruthlessly exposed and it was a case of one, two, three O’Leary. Minutes later, another cross, and another header, this time from the big centre-forward Steve Howard, flashed just wide as we were put through the Luton mincer. We were missing Carey more than any of the other absentees – not just his neck-or-nothing challenges and fist-clenching commitment, but also his organisational ability. Lawrence, Roberts and Pejic seem unable to cope without him. Score 3 – 0.

30 – 45 Minutes: Armstrong headed a clear chance wide on 32 minutes, and the feeling persisted that if we could get to half-time without conceding again, there’d still be hope. Sadly this proved beyond us, as yet another long cross found the predatory Howard, whose header was splendidly placed. Score 4 – 0.

45 – 60 Minutes: As my fellow East Midland Red Paul Craddock pointed out during the break, the game was becoming a case of men against boys. These were confident, competent men strutting their stuff against increasingly desperate and desolate boys. Baker’s superb tip over, after 50 minutes, was the first actual save he’d made. (He had no chance with any of the goals). Wrexham, perversely, were starting to make a decent fist of things as the hour mark approached and Lawrence’s header, from Ferguson’s free-kick, cannoned off the crossbar ; minutes later Holt’s fearsome drive was beaten out by home keeper Royce. Score 4 – 0.

60 – 75 Minutes: The Hatters broke after 62 minutes and although Baker kept out the initial shot, Brkovic dived in to head the fifth. On came Ugarte and Macken and the former’s early Spanish steps gave cause for hope, although he blotted his copybook with a yellow card for violence of the tongue. Another good save by Baker who, erm, earned his dough today. “He should have been on at half time,” said Mr. Craddock as Sam slouched on after 72 minutes. Sam certainly looked as if he had a point to prove, scoring within a minute and looking ten times as menacing in his twenty minutes as Armstrong had looked in his 60. Score 5 – 1.

75 – 90 Minutes: A couple of Sam runs, a couple of Lawrence headers, but the damage was done. Luton’s foot came of the gas and attention, particularly that of the local constabulary, turned to Jacko’s conga. Final score 5 – 1.

OPPOSITION AND FANS? Luton will go up – no question. They nearly went to the wall a few years ago so perhaps we can draw some hope from that. Their fans were quiet in the main. Someone should tell them Luton’s got a “T” in it, though………

OFFICIALS? Sound.

MAN OF THE MATCH? Only one contender – the fans. The constant barrage of encouragement was staggering. We deserved better today.

IF YOU WERE DENIS SMITH? I don’t know. Denis, as we know, is a proud man, and today’s performance can’t have been acceptable to him. When he took the job, he admitted he didn’t need the money – he just wanted to get back into the game he’s so passionate about. Sometimes, though, he must wonder about walking away, putting his feet up and renewing the season ticket at the Britannia.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS? When we got back to Mr. Craddock’s car, we’d got a parking ticket in a public car park! Seems we were in a reserved space. Just about summed up the day. Oh, and the banana skin of Hayes awaits……….

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OTHER MATCH REPORTS
Hatternet: Luton stay 6 points clear
Luton Town FC: Hatters run riot
Wales on Sunday: Smith is short on players and hope
Wrexham AFC: Hatters go nap
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AUDIO REPORTS AND QUOTES
Match Report with John Hardy of BBC Radio Wales  (WindowsMedia Format)
Listen to Denis Smith speaking to BBC Radio Wales  (WindowsMedia Format)
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PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

Denis Smith: "I think that if you come to a club going as well as this, as physical as this, you need your team out and with 12 fit players, I think we are asking a lot for the lads to come down here and get a result. We tried and we had a few chances. We possibly had nearly as many chances as they did but we've got to look at it and we finished with a non-contract player and two YTS lads playing against top of the league. You can't be playing against a team top of the league with that sort of team and expect to win. I think if you look at it, Dennis could have had a hat-trick today but we didn't and physically they are very strong and we missed the physical presence that we have got who are out injured. You've got to accept that you can't come to places like this with trialists and YTS players. We tried to pass it and create some chances but in the end in needed my first team out to give us the opportunity to get a result here. Hopefully when we play them again we will have. At half-time we talked to them and told them that it was important that they didn't get beaten in the second-half, which they achieved. It would have been nice to win the second-half which we almost did. We have to look at this as a one off and that we continue to do the right things. Today though we didn't deal with the ball into the box particularly well, physically, and we didn't track their runs well. We knew we had problems coming into the game, and I'm talking about the injuries, we had to accept that it's going to have an effect. There are not many positives you can take when getting beaten 5-1. We haven't lost for seven games, so to get beaten up as we have today is disappointing. We do have another game on Tuesday but Big Dennis is now carrying an injury so if anybody fancies a game let me know!! It's going to be difficult until the situation changes. I've got long term injuries and until I can possibly bring somebody in, hopefully that will be sooner rather than later, as long as we have a club. I don't worry too much about our season on the pitch, as long as we can get over the next few weeks." [Source: Wrexham AFC]

Mike Newell: "We are really pleased. The first half performance was very similar to Bradford last week and the goals were the icing on the cake. You need the goals to get the points. Wrexham have a lot of injuries and they are missing key players but you can only beat who you are up against and we have done that in the right manner and by playing decent football. We are disappointed not to have kept a clean sheet and whilst people would have liked to have seen a few more goals it is only natural that you take your foot off the gas at 5-0 up. We have scored plenty of goals at home this season, particularly in the last two games and we want teams to come here fearing us, we want to make it a fortress and give them something to think about. We have shared the goals out in the last eighteen months and I believe that is the sign of a good side. The lads are pleased for Sol Davis, we've been on at him for months to get further forward when the chance is there because we know that full backs can score goals. He has done that today and we hope that there will be more to follow. Now he's broken the ice, perhaps they will flow for him. I was more impressed by his overall play, he is a different player this season and his work rate is excellent. Kevin Foley got some great crosses in from right back, both the full backs can create and he has stuttered a bit this season with his form, he is capable of more but it is nice to see him playing well. Ahmet Brkovic has eight goals now this season, he scored goals during pre-season and for the reserves earlier in the year when he wasn't in the team. It is a great return from right midfield and he also makes his fair share as well. Sometimes he is playing on a different level and he gives us good quality." [Source: Luton Town FC]
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LEAGUE ONE

Results

Barnsley

Conclon 44' (p)

1-2

Port Vale

Paynter 65'

Williams 69'

8,462

 

Bradford City

Windass 23' 81'

2-2

Colchester United

Johnson 8' 39'

7,851

 

Bristol City

Lita 4' 25'

Brooker 29'

Wilkshire 63'

4-1

Milton Keynes Dons

Small 52'

10,717

 

Chesterfield

Folan 90'

1-0

Blackpool

4,978

 

Hartlepool United

Porter 78' 89'

2-1

Doncaster Rovers

Roberts 30'

5,495

 

Huddersfield

v

Brentford

15:00

SUN

Hull City

Barmby 1'

Elliott 34'

Lewis 39'

3-1

Walsall

Standing 49'

15,961

 

Luton Town

Robinson 13'

Davis 17'

O'Leary 22'

Howard 44'

Brkovic 62'

5-1

Wrexham

Sam 73'

7,144

 

Peterborough United

0-1

Bournemouth

Hayter 4'

4,004

 

Stockport County

0-3

Sheffield Wednesday

Proudlock 40'

McGovern 50'

McMahon 88'

7,222

 

Torquay United

Constantine 9'

Gritton 71'

2-0

Oldham Athletic

3,183

 

Tranmere Rovers

Hall 34' 74'

2-1

Swindon Town

Duke 69'

8,419

 

League Table

Pos Team                             P  W  D  L   F   A   GD Pts
----------------------------------------------------------------
1   Luton Town                      17 12  2  3  34  18   16  38
2   Tranmere Rovers                 16  9  5  2  26  16   10  32
----------------------------------------------------------------
3   Hull City                       17 10  2  5  28  22    6  32
4   AFC Bournemouth                 17  9  3  5  31  21   10  30
5   Bradford City                   17  9  2  6  28  25    3  29
6   Brentford                       16  8  3  5  20  21   -1  27
----------------------------------------------------------------
7   Chesterfield                    17  7  5  5  23  17    6  26
8   Hartlepool United               17  8  2  7  26  28   -2  26
9   Swindon Town                    17  7  4  6  28  25    3  25
10  Bristol City                    16  6  6  4  30  23    7  24
11  Huddersfield Town               16  7  3  6  27  22    5  24
12  Sheffield Wednesday             17  6  6  5  25  23    2  24
13  Port Vale                       17  7  2  8  20  24   -4  23
14  Doncaster Rovers                17  6  5  6  21  26   -5  23
15  Colchester United               17  6  4  7  26  22    4  22
16  Wrexham                         15  5  6  4  17  21   -4  21
17  Barnsley                        17  4  6  7  21  23   -2  18
18  Walsall                         17  4  6  7  24  30   -6  18
19  Peterborough United             17  4  5  8  19  19    0  17
20  Oldham Athletic                 17  4  4  9  21  27   -6  16
----------------------------------------------------------------
21  Blackpool                       16  3  6  7  19  24   -5  15
22  Torquay United                  16  3  6  7  20  27   -7  15
23  Milton Keynes Dons              17  3  5  9  20  31  -11  14
24  Stockport County                17  2  4 11  16  35  -19  10
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