Luton v Tykes

A mistake from Barnsley reserve keeper Vito Mannone, in the last minute of stoppage time, gifted the three points to Luton after The Hatters had failed to convert a plethora of chances to win by a comfortable margin.

It looked for all the world a draw as the dying seconds were played out, and the ball fell to Sol Davis. He punted the ball into the opponents’ penalty area more in hope than anticipation and poor Mannone, in for the suspended Nick Colgan, only had to catch it but somehow managed to miss it leaving Ahmet Brkovic to head the ball home from point blank range.

Carlos Edwards had given the Town the lead shortly after half time with an excellent strike across the home keeper, but Barnsley were level within a minute when Howard, (Brian – not Steve) was allowed the freedom of the centre of the park to run straight through the Luton defence to give Beresford no chance.

Luton kept faith with the line up from last week with the addition of almost fit again Sol Davis on the bench at the expense of Peter Holmes.

Luton started the better and forced a save out of the rookie keeper early on, but the game developed into a cat and mouse affair, which was nonetheless very entertaining.

Brian Howard had given Luton fair notice of his power and speed when he ghosted in to head Ex Hatter Michael McIndoe’s cross goalwards from the edge of the goal area but Emanuel cleared it off the line.

Devaney should have scored but his scuffed drive was plamed to safety by Beresford, who was rapidly becoming the busier keeper.

Martin Devaney looked Barnsley’s most dangerous player causing havoc down the Hatters’left flank, but Luton were keeping possession well without showing much promise in front of goal.

Luton settled into a better rhythm and looked comfortable on the ball.

Leon Barnett rose to meet a Dean Morgan corner, outjumping the home defence but heading wide when it was easier to score, and then towards the end of the first half repeated the feat.

Just as Devaney was testing the left side of Luton’s defence, Edwards was doing the same down the home side’s left and he made a couple of chances for himself, one which was saved by Mannone and another which went just wide.

I think both managers would have been pleased not to be a goal down at half time.



As the second half was just under way and many of the fans were still returning from their cup of tea, Carlos Edwards turned the defence one way then the other fashioning a difficult shooting opportunity, and then buried it in the net with precision and power.

Luton seem to have mastered the art of scoring wonder goals, but the simple chances go begging time and time again.

Hardly had the referee restarted the game than Howard ran straight through Luton’s defence with Langley desperately chasing him. Beresford was not impressed with the defending, nor with Langley’s failure to prevent Howard from shooting, but to be fair, he was never on terms with the home striker and to have lunged at him would have almost certainly been a penalty aand a red card.

Two minutes later, Vine crossed for Langley to head wide and this signalled an onslaught which led to many chances being spurned by Luton, interspersed with the odd scare at the other end as Barnsley were reduced to hitting the Town on the break.

Barnett sent another header soaring over the crossbar from yet another well taken Morgan corner and Robinson, Emanuel and Parkin all hit the side netting. Luton’s best chance came when very-pretty-to-watch interplay between Vine Robinson and Langley saw Emanuel clear down the left and with Langley and Brkovic open in the centre the young midfielder shot past the post. Brkovic in particular was unamused!

Both sides went for the three points and an exciting end to the match looked on the cards after the home keeper tried to gift the points to Luton when he scuffed a clearance, leaving Vine the easiest of opportunities, but he delayed too long and saw his first shot blocked and his second deflected away.

However, Mannone was not to keep himself out of the headlines for the wrong reasons. As the clock showed that the three minutes of time added by referee Whitestone were almost up, the hapless keeper mishandled Davis’s speculative punt and Brkovic was overjoyed to see his first goal of the season take all three points, which was just about justified on the town’s second half display.