The Hatters came away from the Stadium of Light trailing 2-1 in their Championship play-off semi-final after the first leg on Saturday afternoon. Here are our takeaways from the clash.
Elijah extracts personal play-off revenge
One of the worst sights of a memorable season a year ago was seeing Elijah Adebayo hobble onto the pitch at the John Smith’s Stadium as Luton resorted to desperation to level the semi-final with Huddersfield Town. The former Walsall hotshot could barely move and it was a sad way to end what was a brilliant season for the striker.
Move it on 12 months and Adebayo is back in the extended part of this season, this time thankfully fully mobile, and he secured his own piece of personal revenge on the competition when he lashed home the opening goal after 10 minutes after Alfie Doughty had hit the post from close range.
The striker nearly doubled the advantage for his team midway through the opening period but his point-blank effort was blocked by Trai Hume. Luton fans will be hoping that he continues to win his battle with the play-offs with more goals on Tuesday.
Bright Bell the pick of the Town players
It is fair to say that this first leg performance wasn’t the best that Luton have showed in recent times, with a number of players off the strong pace they have set throughout the second part of the regular season, but one player who that can’t be labelled at is Amari’i Bell, who was solid throughout the afternoon.
He kept the dangerman Amad Diallo quiet in the first period of the match and was brave enough to get onto the ball and carry it through the thirds in the hope of launching Luton attacks, although nothing really clicked from the breaks that he made. The way he contained Diallo in the opening part of the game will offer hope for the return leg though.
Midfield misdemeanours have massive impact
A huge deciding factor in the outcome of the first leg was bookings to Luton midfielders. The Hatters were comfortably on top in the match for the opening half an hour but it all changed when Marvelous Nakamba went into the referee’s book in a first half where seemingly every foul was a yellow card, apart, of course, from an off-the-ball incident which saw Sunderland striker Joe Gelhardt cuff Tom Lockyer round the back of the head inside the opening two minutes.
The card happy referee, Tim Robinson, one of the worst at Championship level, later booked Jordan Clark rendering the Town midfield impotent in terms of tackling and being aggressive and physical in the press, particularly with decisions so inconsistent from a referee who was always going to be out of his depth based on previous matches in which he has taken charge of the Hatters.
To be fair to Robinson, he did fail to spot a potential second yellow for Nakamba which would have been catastrophic for the chances of a turnaround in the tie and, unlike when Luton last visited the Stadium of Light, he did spot a blatant dive by seemingly regular cheat Diallo, however the early cards certainly impacted Luton negatively.
Luton did well to stay in the tie
Ahead of the trip to Wearside, Tom Lockyer referenced how moments can change matches and how after Sunderland equalised through that disgracefully awarded penalty in March, Luton were hanging on and could have lost the game. There was the potential for the tie to get away from the Hatters here too when Hume gave the home side the lead with still 27 minutes plus added time to play.
That was emphasised the night before when in League One, Peterborough all but put their semi-final to bed late on when they scored a third and fourth against Sheffield Wednesday to leave that tie as good as over. It was pivotal that whether an equaliser came before full time or not, that Luton could go back to Kenilworth Road no worse than 2-1 down in the tie.
Given the incredible atmosphere, the magnitude of the occasion and the freedom of the opponent, Town deserve a lot of credit for remaining in the tie, particularly with Ethan Horvath not having a save to make after what proved to be the winning goal.
All to play for under those magical Kenilworth Road lights!
The reward for staying in the tie is a mouth-watering night which awaits us at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday evening, one which the old girl relishes hosting. We have already had one day which nobody inside the ramshackled old ground will ever forget this season and everyone of a Town persuasion descending on LU4 on Tuesday will be hoping another will be waiting for them.
Ultimately, Luton need to win a home match to either set up another 30 minutes of football or, hopefully, book their place at Wembley. In what is sure to be an intense atmosphere and a match played much more on the Hatters’ terms on the smaller, cramped playing surface at Kenilworth Road, there is still everything to play for in a tie which Town still have a great chance of progressing from despite the indifferent second half showing at the Stadium of Light. We can’t wait!
