A hat-trick by Matthew Barnes-Homer saw the Hatters home in a difficult fixture against Kettering at Rockingham Road on Tuesday evening. This gives the Hatters six points and top spot in the league table.
Although his three goals included two penalty kicks both donated by ex Hatter Ian Roper, MBH is looking a real handful this season and might have scored a couple more from open play.
Luton ran out 3-1 winners after their early penalty was wiped out by Christie’s equaliser, then two more from MBH sealed a deserved win as Kettering finished with 9 men.
The Hatters made two changes to the starting line up with Claude Gnakpa starting on the right moving Drury to the left and dropping Howells to the bench, while Kevin Pilkington replaced Tyler in goal.
Kettering fielded three ageing ex Hatters in Nathan Abbey, Sol Davis and Ian Roper, although Ropes did not look remotely fit even for him!
Luton started well and were giving the Poppied plenty to think about and MBH went close early on, but Kettering showed more attacking intent in 15 minutes than Altrincham did in 90 on Saturday and Dance got a shot away but straight at Pilks the gloves.
Drury was showing that he can play a bit down the left as well as the right and was linking well with Barnes-Homer, Fred Murray and Gallen, one such move leaving MBH enough room to fire off a shot which grazed the crossbar.
As Kettering realised they could not match theone touch football being played by Luton they adopted he man tactics and a few tackles of dubious quality were delivered and warnings duly issued by a half decent referee.
On 25 minutes Gleeson played a sweet pass through the defence for Gallen to run on to and clipped the ball past the titanic Roper, (sorry I mean Roper, the Titanic), who tripped the former QPR striker for a penalty kick. The referee showed a bit of sympathy for Ropes believing that he obviously got there as quickly as he could ;-)and only yellow carded him for the offence when strictly speaking, as last man, it probably should have been a red. Richard Money thought so and shot out of the dug out waving his arms about and shouting.
MBH took the kick and sent Abbey the wrong way, (not a difficult task you must admit from our experience).
Luton continued to domninate play and looked in complete control until in the 32nd minute, Kettering won a corner and Makofo delivered it into much the same area as Altrincham had on Saturday and the end result was the same, a free header and a goal, this time by Iyseden Christie.
The play and the results have been great but someone needs to be defending that area on the edge of the six yard box from corners!
Luton looked unfazed by the setback and continued to play patient clever football and MBH nearly restored the lead when Gallen sent Claude away and he set Matthew up with a golden chance but somehow he slipped it over the bar.
The scorer was still getting into the right areas and Gallen set him up for another shot soon after but he hit it straight into Abbey’s stomach, leaving the Hatters unlucky not to be ahead by the break.
Right from the restart, a defensive error left Gallen in possesssion in the box and he unselfishly laid it off to the better placed Drury who tried to curl it into the top corner, but it bent too late and ended up wide.
More similar chances went begging leading one to think another six to eight goal thrashing might be on the horizon for some poor team!
Kettering top scorer Christie was the only ray of light in a dull performance by Kettering and he certainly tested the mobility of the Hatters’ new central defensive pairing, and turned Kroca on a couple of occasions before slipping him completely to net just after the hour, but he had definitely gone too early and was correctly ruled offside.
Christie who had been leaving his foot in quite a bit all evening and already on a yellow card, did it again leaving referee Heywood no choice but to send him off and with him went any chance Ketering might have had of snatching a winner.
Another ancient former Hatter came on as a sub to try to maintain their forward thrust, and that was player/assistant manager Paul Furlong. However, he hadn’t even touched the ball before Luton were in front. Luton sub Crow played it out to MBH who found Drury and from the edge of the box he drilled in a powerful effort which Abbey saved but MBH had gambled and was first to the rebound to net with obvious delight.
More chances came and went for Luton with the midfield operating as a unit and when Drury went over to the right when Howells came on as sub, a barrage of great crosses went into the Poppies box. It seemed another goal was imminent.
Howells set MBH up for his hat trick with a delightful pass but agian the two goal man was wide with his effort.
With 7 minutes left of normal time, Barnes-Homer and Crow exchanged passes and Crow went into the box with a burst of pace that left the lethargic Roper waving a leg at him and bringing him down for another penalty, and another yellow card for Ropes and an early bath.
Barnes-Homer stepped up and sent the keeper the same wrong direction and placed the ball in the same right one for his and Luton’s third goal.
kettering had lost their discipline and skipper Ashley Westwood was lucky not to be the third Poppy in the bath after a terrible challenge on Barnes-Homer, leading the Town striker to get up and indulge in a game of push and shove with the offender. Both players got yellow cards, but I didn’t understand why Westwood didn’t get a yellow card for the challenge and another one for the scuffle.
Obviously International clearance has been received for Pavel Besta who entered the fray for a five minute cameo as Luton saw the game out for an excellent win.
Ketering: Nathan Abbey, Luke Graham, Sol Davis, Ashley Westwood (C), Ian Roper, Andre Boucaud (Brett Solkhon 86), Jean-Paul Marna (Paul Furlong 72), James Dance, Serge Makofo, Iyseden Christie, Patrick Noubissie.
Substitutes not used: Niall Cooper, Greg Taylor, Darren Wrack.
Luton Town: Kevin Pilkington, Dan Gleeson, Zdenek Kroca, George Pilkington (C), Freddie Murray, Claude Gnakpa (Jake Howells 66), Keith Keane, Adam Murray (Pavel Besta 87), Andy Drury, Kevin Gallen (Danny Crow 65), Matthew Barnes-Homer.
Substitutes not used: Mark Tyler, Adam Newton.
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