Luton secure CCC Status

In a typical end-of-season match, the only memorable thing about it is that it was the day Luton secured Championship status for another year. None of the teams in the relegation zone can now catch Luton?s 55 points.

Other than that it was eminently forgettable. Ipswich had the majority of the possession and Luton the majority of the chances in a game that never threatened to entertain in the manner that Luton?s home games usually do. However, it was good to see the Town grind out a result in those circumstances rather than play all the good football then concede at the end to lose.

Is it just me, or do Luton look more solid at the back when the central pairing is Coyne and Perrett? Before the emergence of Curtis Davies, they were the pairing that seemed to keep more clean sheets than Luton had done for some time. I know Perrett is getting on a bit, but his experience seems to help the defence remain calm.

With Nicholls still out and Unders having a broken arm, Mike Newell opted to have a look at Markus Heikkinen in midfield, using Coyne and Perrett as the two centre backs. Dean Morgan was recalled in place of Ahmet Brkovic, but although he ran around a lot, he kept drifting infield instead of taking on the full back as we know he can do. He did not really enhance his claim for a regular start.

On the other hand, Brkovic, who had looked a bit jaded recently, came on as a substitute and almost secured man-of-the-match in a 15-minute cameo, which changed the game.

Rowan Vine, back in the starting eleven at the expense of Warren Feeney, also ran around a lot, and dragged defenders out of position, but all the Luton strikers seem recently to have lost the touch for goal. Last week Feeney missed a fair few chances, and this week Vine missed similar ones, or had them saved by the promising young keeper Shane Supple.

Heikks, who came with the promise that he was even better in midfield than in defence, certainly stopped Ipswich from driving through midfield, but his distribution was not up to his usual standard. He did enough, though, to convince me that he could be the next permanent central midfielder, possibly in place of Kevin Nicholls.

Carlos Edwards was up and down his wing all afternoon without getting many crosses in although managed one, which released Morgan who drove wide. Edwards also just shot wide when Supple came out quickly to put him off, after Morgan returned the favour with a good cross of his own.

Currie hit a speculative thirty yarder, which dipped viciously, but Beresford was equal to it, before Robinson latched on to a Coyne route one pass but saw his effort beaten out by Supple.

Morgan, Howard and Vine, had half chances saved by Supple and Ipswich had a shout for a penalty, although it looked to me that Jimmy Juan was looking for a foot to trip over and went down too easily, but by half time it was one those games as we used to say, where both teams were lucky to have nil!

Morgan began the second half with the miss of the day when he tried to burst the net and only placed the crowd in jeopardy, and McEveley sliced the ball to Vine who missed similarly but on the other side of the goal.

Nil ? nil looked odds on as chance after chance went by without ever looking as though either team could muster the quality strike needed.

Within two minutes of coming on as substitute, Brkovic had turned the full back twice and got in two delightfully teasing crosses just too high for Howard to get any power on them, and then in the 81st minute Brkovic received the ball wide on the left and after jinking one way then the other drove a low trajectory cross towards the near post where Howard stole in and glanced a header across the face of Supple?s goal, and in at the far post.

Howard might have added another when he headed an easier chance over the bar and Feeney, looking lively as sub also missed a half decent chance, but Ipswich never looked like scoring and the Town held on for the points, which were just about deserved on Luton?s better use of the ball generally, although Ipswich had more possession.