If positives were points, Luton’s relegation struggles would be solved on this evidence alone. They’re not and this narrow, undeserved defeat to Sheffield United was as sickening as they come.
It wasn’t quite daylight robbery, though the protests at Anel Ahmedhodžić’s 79th minute winner continued long after the final whistle.
Town players and boss Matt Bloomfield said their piece to referee and Lewis Smith, while fans, who were convinced the Blades skipper was offside, booed the officials down the Kenilworth Road tunnel.
Unfortunately, when they see the replays they’ll realise that Mark McGuinness was playing Ahmedhodžić onside and the Blades skipper was left all alone to pick his spot after a goalmouth scramble.
And for all Sheffield’s attacking talent that barely featured – but for Ben Brereton Diaz’s hitting the post and a couple of Thomas Kaminski saves – it was a horrible goal to concede.
But that’s the luck that top-of-the-table teams carry, while basement boys do not – and that’s where Luton remain, still three points adrift.
But even a magnanimous United boss Chris Wilder said afterwards that, on this evidence, Luton should be “nowhere near” the relegation zone.
And, perhaps that wouldn’t be if they could score goals. But Town have now drawn a blank on four of Bloomfield’s six games in charge, with this game setting a new club record of four home games without a goal, which began in the penultimate game of Rob Edwards’ reign on New Year’s Day against Norwich.
Elijah Adebayo – one of seven changes – would’ve been back to his best had he not missed a first half sitter and a header, while the outstanding Thelo Aasgaard hit the crossbar in a scintillating first half where it looked like United were the struggling team, and Town pushing for promotion.
This was a world away from the supine showing at Sunderland on Wednesday. It was like the Luton of old. Carlton Morris, Amari’i Bell, Liam Walsh, Marvelous Nakamba, Kal Naismith, Alfie Doughty and, in flashes, Isiah Jones were all impressive. Their efforts deserved more than yet another defeat.
“[It’s] really disappointing,” said boss Bloomfield, adding: [I’ve] just being told inside by some guys that have been here all season that they feel the first 45 is the best that it’s been all season, which is, obviously pleasing on one hand, but disappointing on the other, because we want to win games, we want to win football matches and we haven’t today. So, we’re disappointed, but that’s the minimum performance that we need to provide for the rest of the season.”
From that perspective, it offered hope when four days earlier in the north-east of England there was none. This was a performance that revived the old, fiery Kenilworth Road atmosphere. Singing returned. It was a welcome blast from the not too distant past. And though the league table and Town’s survival prospects are no better off because of it, the Hatters may now have, at least, found a formula for a fight.
Bloomfield said: “We can’t just hope for results without putting performances in. Eventually, good performances pay you back, there’s no doubt about that. That’s the level that we need to attain for the rest of the season.
“There’s some really good individual performances that go into the collective and I thought that, all over the pitch, there was good energy and intensity.
“There’s loads and loads of positives. We have to be very balanced in what we do. We have to be consistent and we’ve spoken about that a lot.
“We can’t get too carried away with the disappointing performances like Wednesday evening. We all understood that. We analysed it and tried to do something slightly different today. And I thought the boys responded.”
There’s no escaping that this was still a tenth winless game for Luton and that, ultimately, is the metric that needs to change.
Sheffield United found a way to win and move ahead of Leeds at the top of the Championship and, somehow, Town need to start pulling similar rabbits out of hats if they want to stay in the division.
Even in the second half, when the Blades made two half time substitutes, to begin making the second period a more even affair, Luton, who reverted to the much-maligned Edwards formation favourite of three at the back, were rarely threatened.
At the other end Michael Cooper collected enough of Town’s second half crosses to stifle Town’s main supply line, though one Doughty teaser found Morris’ head only for the striker’s deft glance to be met by the glove of the goalkeeper.
But when the Hatters can’t find the net, there have been very few suggestions this season that theirs will remain unbreached. And even with Naismith and Amari’i Bell rolling back the years, Town found a way to offer Ahmedhodžic his smash-and-grab moment. He took it. Town didn’t take theirs.
But, somehow, Luton must take the good parts of this surprisingly good performance and apply it to every single second their remaining 14 games. If this proves a flash in the pan, they will be relegated. But make this their yardstick then, at least now, there’s some hope of survival.
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