Luton Town suffered a setback in their promotion hopes when Peterborough United denied them two valuable points with a late leveller in a lively encounter at London Road. Here are our takeaways from the game.
- Super Shea saves the Town
If any of the 3,700 Luton fans who descended on Cambridgeshire and thought that Peterborough United would be easy prey were almost immediately made to think again as the home side came out full of intensity and forced Hatters stopper James Shea into a number of big saves.
To be fair to the Luton keeper, he was up to the task, making two really good saves from a Frankie Kent header from a corner and a long range effort from Harrison Burrows. His handling was top notch throughout the evening and while he looked visibly disappointed after the equaliser there was nothing he could do about that.
Luton are likely to need their keeper over this run-in and on this evidence he’ll certainly be up to the task.
2. Relentless Campbell shines once again
I’ve said it a number of times this season but it is quite something to watch Allan Campbell on a football pitch. He was absolutely everywhere in this match. In the first half in particular, wherever the ball dropped, there he was. It got to the stage that at one point I had to stop looking at the ball and look around the pitch and make sure there was only one of him on there.
With his partner in crime Jordan Clark on the sidelines at the minute it certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing if Luton had cloned the Scot and could get more than one of him onto the pitch, but the one that is on there is such a driving force. He has a never say die attitude which will drive the team to good things. As things get tense over the final six matches his desire, athleticism and quality will be huge attributes.
3. Lansbury produces a piece of magic
The Luton goal shortly after half time will go down as being scored by Danny Hylton for his fourth of the season and assisted by Fred Onyedinma but make no mistake it was created by an X-Rated pass by Henri Lansbury, who had earlier come on to replace the injured Cameron Jerome.
The ball fell to Lansbury on the halfway line and almost instinctively he guided the ball in behind the left-back Burrows into the path of the galloping Onyedinma. He burst into the box and rolled it across for Hylton who couldn’t miss, and didn’t make any mistake but the goal was all about that Lansbury pass. Sky will be glad this match was only behind the red button because such adult content should not be shown before the watershed!
4, Two points dropped but Town still in a great position
There is no getting away from the fact that being ahead with three minutes to go, this was two points dropped, although with Peterborough missing an absolute sitter and hitting the post after they equalised there is an argument to be made that Luton will take the point and run.
Whichever side of that particular fence you inhabit, the picture still looks good for Luton. With QPR and Millwall both losing elsewhere on Tuesday evening it now looks like four from six for those coveted play-off places and one of those, in Blackburn Rovers, don’t so much look to be treading water but sinking pretty quickly, so you could argue it is four from five. Middlesbrough in particular have a tough couple of weeks coming up while Nottingham Forest don’t have a walk in the park in that same time either. Despite the disappointment at London Road this is not a time to panic. Instead look forward to a huge clash at Huddersfield on Monday night where if the Hatters can come out on top they will take a giant leap towards extending their season.
That pass was superb