Luton began a new era under manager Rob Edwards with a 2-1 defeat away to Middlesbrough on Saturday as the Championship returned from a four-week World Cup break. Here are our takeaways from the game.
Clark cracker warms up wintry showdown
Statisticians are always keen to note who scores the first goal of a managerial reign, and for Rob Edwards and Luton Town they will be writing the name of Jordan Clark into their notes, as the winger-turned-midfielder opened the scoring with one of the strikes of the season.
Clark had been involved in much of the play in the opening 33 minutes and then sparked the game into life when he took a quick free kick after he was sent flying just inside the Boro half. He exchanged passes to Carlton Morris before carrying the ball past a couple of defenders and then unleashed a 25-yard rocket into the bottom corner for a wonderful solo goal, which was the standout moment in the 90 minutes.
Signs of change even in defeat
Whenever a new manager takes over a club the natural thing for anyone to do is look for immediate signs of change under the incoming personnel. That probably wasn’t as relevant here because Rob Edwards told me in an interview for the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust podcast earlier in the week that any changes he would look to implement would be gradual rather than immediate.
Even so, there were certainly signs of a difference, particularly in the opening 45 minutes at the Riverside Stadium. Town were confident in possession of the ball and perhaps, more importantly, they looked comfortable with the ball at their feet. They were able to pass within their structure with short passes which created space for the ball receiver, while looking for the diagonal switch of play, at every opportunity, which has previously served them so well.
Edwards spoke of a desire to have more control of the play, particularly in attacking situations, and for the first half at least, he probably won’t have been too unhappy with what he saw from that point of view.
Previous criticism seems to have been worked on
There were not many criticisms that could be levelled at Luton under former manager Nathan Jones, but if there was one it might have been that his side did not score enough goals, a point which has probably been highlighted even more this term with all the defensive issues that the Town have had to endure during the first half of the campaign.
Going into the restart at Middlesbrough, Luton had delivered just 23 goals in 21 games, just nine of those coming in the 10 road trips this term, and while those goals have yielded five away wins and seven in all, it has been a major contributor to the nine draws in the previous 21 matches.
A large reason for this was the willingness of the Luton strikers to continually run the channels. Work-rate was a huge part of the Luton success, and will be under Edwards too, but when creative players got into position to play the killer pass or cross, all too often there were too few bodies in the box to pick out.
It is a short sample size, but the early indications were that the strikers will stay in the centre of the pitch a lot more, coming short when they need to link up the play, and leaving the wing-backs to provide the width and create the chances. That final ball lacked a little potency but four weeks off and a solid Middlesbrough backline may well have been a part of that.
Regardless of that, it would appear that whenever Alfie Doughty and James Bree, or whoever receives the ball out wide, look up, they will see a lot more Luton players to pick out and this can only be a good thing for the goalscoring potential when you consider the quality the Hatters have in those forward positions.
Lack of defensive depth continues to haunt Hatters
When the World Cup break came around it was hoped it would come at a good time and give Luton four weeks to get some important defensive players fit, back up to speed and on the pitch again. Those hopes were dashed as soon as the Rob Edwards team sheet was released, showing an identical starting XI to the one Mick Harford named for the 1-1 draw with Rotherham last month.
Missing from the XI and the substitutes’ bench were the likes of club captain Sonny Bradley, Dan Potts, both of whom were confirmed absentees ahead of the game, as well as Reece Burke and a potential shield for the defence in Henri Lansbury. That none of them were even available from the bench suggests that their return to action isn’t imminent.
This led to Amari’I Bell once again being required to fill in on the left side of a three at the back. Unfortunately, his red card means that option won’t be available to Edwards when Millwall come to town next week as the Town’s defensive problems continue to increase rather than ease up.
Immediate reminder of the poor standard of officials in the Championship
Any Luton fans who are English could be forgiven for having the right hump with referees after both the Hatters and England were victims of poor officiating within the space of six hours on Saturday. Those supporters who have been watching the World Cup in the main have been treated by some excellent officiating, undoubtedly assisted by those in control of each match having the wonderful Pierluigi Collina as their boss.
Unfortunately, English football has no such luxury and Gavin Ward gave another reminder that the level of officiating in this country just isn’t up to scratch. In a pretty even game in which both sides contested it strongly but in the main, fairly, Ward still managed to come up with four yellow cards for those in a white shirt without producing one at all for anyone in red.
Two of those yellows were handed to Bell with the first one in particular being harsh on the Jamaica international when Isaiah Jones, who spent all afternoon throwing himself to the floor at every opportunity, seemed to fall over the ball as much as any challenge which came in on him.
Indeed, the worst tackle of the afternoon was the one which crunched into Jordan Clark prior to the move which Luton opened the scoring from. Miraculously, a free-kick was awarded but no yellow card was seemingly thought about.
It was probably no surprise that Mr Ward then completely missed a forearm barge from eventual scorer Matt Crooks into the face of Gabriel Osho in the first phase of the move which led to the winning goal in injury time, all from an original free-kick which only the arbiter had any idea of why it was awarded.
Those fans who still have an interest in the World Cup after the England departure should probably savour the final four matches of it. They might be the last time you’ll see anything bordering competent officiating for a while.
