Not one for the purists, this, as Luton gained a hard-fought point against Reading but were left counting the cost of injuries to defenders Sonny Bradley, Tom Lockyer and a penalty refusal.
Just when Town can ill-afford it, the skipper was stretchered off in the first half with a knee injury after suffering an aerial foul and an ugly landing.
Boss Nathan Jones said afterwards: “My biggest thing was, with Sonny Bradley, it’s not a bad challenge, but in rugby that’s a red card.
“When people are up in the air and they get whacked then they land awkwardly, they land on their neck and you can’t do that. It’s a tricky one.”
He added: “It wasn’t a bad thing, it’s just a cheap little foul that you don’t want to see. It’s very difficult because when you land that can cause serious injury and hopefully it’s not.”
Lockyer suffered a delayed issue on 59 minutes from an earlier clash of heads with former England international Andy Carroll, but Jones insisted afterwards that his countryman’s departure wasn’t as serious as first thought.
“It wasn’t a concussion,” the manager said, adding: “He’s just had a real whack. It wasn’t an elbow or anything, he’s just headed the back of his head. It was an honest challenge so there was no malice in any way.”
Either way, it looks at least like Jones will be without Bradley, Reece Burke and Gabriel Osho for the trip to Blackpool on Saturday. The latter’s red card against Watford and his subsequent three-game ban is now proving even more reckless than Jones’ initial assessment.
Finishing the Reading game with a makeshift back three of James Bree, Dan Potts and Amari’i Bell, the manager said: “We had to defend our box with everything. We’ve got all centre halves out again, reminiscent of last year.
“We had Harry Cornick at right wing-back, Bree and Bell at centre half, so they’ve really had to dig in and I’m proud of that performance in terms of the defensive side of stuff.
“They had to defend because they put balls into your box. Andy Carroll’s one of the best in the Premier League at attacking the ball, so it was a real tough game, but I’m proud of the performance they put in.”
The patched-up defence battled determinedly for the final 30 minutes and rode their luck at times against the physicality of Carroll and Yakou Meite, as both strikers had chances.
The former twice headed wide with chances that are usually manna from heaven, while Meite, who bagged four in the Royals’ 5-0 win in the Great Escape season, came closer but he found Ethan Horvath in superb form.
The USA international got down well to palm away that first-half effort and was on hand again to beat away a sizzling long-range missile from Tom Ince. His prize was a seventh clean sheet of the campaign.
But, aside from as a dearth of outfield quality, fans railed against the frustrating performance of Premier League referee John Brooks, and Jones could not fathom how the official refused to award his side a spot-kick in the first half.
“There’s a stonewall penalty,” said the Hatters chief, adding: “It’s right in front of him, and he said, “no”.
“You can’t show them but it’s mental. It’s literally two yards in front of him, Lockyer gets away and he’s rugby tackled. The ball’s delivered and he’s rugby tackled.
“That’s from the corner. It’s crazy how he hasn’t given it. That’s the biggest thing.
“It was one of those games where he let a lot go for both sides and was a bit inconsistent, but my biggest gripe was the penalty. It’s nailed on.”
A spot-kick may have been the only route to goal for a Town side that has now drawn a blank on six occasions this term, and they have established themselves as home draw specialists, with six stalemates in their 11 Championship outings at Kenilworth Road.
They never really troubled Royals keeper Joe Lumley, though a fast start promised much more. Elijah Adebayo battled well, with top scorer Carlton Morris rested on the bench, and he forced a block from the visiting keeper, while Alfie Doughty fired on target, but Harry Cornick and Potts both pulled efforts wide.
Jones said: “It’s a hard-fought point. It was a bit of a robust Championship game and I thought we stood up to that.
“We started really well and had some real good situations and opportunities, but we just never demonstrated enough quality tonight.”
Have we not got any young CB’s at the club we can bring through? We were did alright with our make shift defence against Reading, seemed without Tom Ince creating there chances they weren’t much of a threat up front, World Cup break can’t come quick enough, hopefully Sonny’s injury isn’t too series #COYH
Another home game another boring 90+ mins of football where we lacked any guile going forward. It’s just one of those things this season. We could be bottom like Huddersfield. So I’ll keep some perspective.
Great game for Pelly. Doughty looks good. And Bell had his best game in ages.
But it’s soooo dull. 90 minutes of fun v qpr is all we’ve had at home this season. Only 2 teams have also played 10 games at home and have a worse record than us – wba and hull (them on goal difference only). I wouldn’t be surprised to see 4 points min from Blackpool and stoke. We still know how to play away from home. But I also expect more dropped points against Rotherham. Then it’s a break and either a chance to work on something to be more proactive and fun at home, get some players fit, or come back in December for more of the same knowing at least we will finish the season somewhere comfortable between 10th and 16th.