Luton bite the dust

Although Luton’s relegation fate was sealed in a 1-0 defeat they went down fighting.

If only the Town had played with the same effort all season they may not have suffered such a fate.

Although Derby were nervy and playing below their best, Luton defended well and attacked at every opportunity. Unfortunately, they never had enough quality at the sharp end to cause Derby any damage.

Apart from a few shots which lacked power, mainly from Calvin Andrew, Bywater was never seriously challenged while at the other end some good goalkeeping and stout defending kept Derby’s threat to a minimum.

Chris Coyne did an excellent man marking job on Steve Howard, although in another game he may have conceded at least one penalty kick for the manner in which he did so, but he showed a doggedness which has been singularly lacking all season in the Luton defence.

The goal which won the game came after a corner from the Derby right, which was turned goalwards by Leacock but Brill got down to save superbly, only to see Nyatanga in the right place to divert the rebound home. It seemed to hit his shin and bounce down and over the outstretched leg of Foley on the line but scrappy though it was, it decided the game.

Late on Blackwell introduced Langley for O’Leary and Idrizaj for Talbot and Luton’s attacking threat looked more sustained, and Idrizaj looked to have some quality about him.

When he received the ball wide left after some good strength by Langley, the Austrian loan player took the ball down turned made some space and got off a shot which Bywater could only parry but the ball did not fall to a Luton player to effect a similar end product to Derby’s goal.

After a very depressing season, There were some positives to be drawn from the performance, and I feel that Blackwell and his new team will certainly be more professional in their approach and more tactically aware than Mike Newell and co and we will see a fitter and more organised team next season.