Luton Town (A) 16/03/24

Luton Town 1-1  Nottingham Forest 

Berry 89'                       Wood 34'

 

The same old story every week: poor finishing and conceding set-pieces. In a fixture as big as Forest Vs Luton; a huge game in the relegation battle.  

 

Luton Town hosted Forest on Saturday in a game that ended 1-1. Before the fixture, the Reds sat 17^th in the table, 3 points off relegation, on 24 points. As for Luton, they were in 18^th on 21 points. The draw meant the two sides remained in the same positions just gaining an extra point. However, after Forest’s hearing about their points deduction for breaking the Premier League’s PSR rules, they were deducted 4 points, leaving them 1 point behind Luton and dropping into that dreaded relegation zone.

 

In the two sides last meeting, they drew 2-2 back at the City Ground after a Chris Wood brace was cancelled out by late goals from Chiedozie Ogbene and Elijah Adebayo. This fixture was the first meeting of both sides in the Premier League after the majority of their games have fallen in the second division (Championship and League Division Two). As for injuries, the hosts were without Adebayo, Marvelous Nakamba and Amari’i Bell. Tom Lockyer remains out too after his cardiac arrest in December. Forest are still without Ola Aina who hasn’t featured since his injury at AFCON but both Willy Boly and Ibrahim Sangare returned to the starting 11. Gonzalo Montiel and Nuno Tavares are still side-lined with thigh injuries and it was announced Taiwo Awoniyi picked up another injury which will keep him out for a lot of the remaining season.

 

The game started with Luton on the front foot, but the chances created by Ross Barkley were saved simply by goalkeeper Matz Sels. In the 11^th minute, Barkley found himself free in space on the edge of the area for a third time and fired a shot towards the bottom right corner. To Forest’s delight, it fizzed just past the post. After getting past the early pressure of the Kenilworth Road atmosphere, the Reds managed to create some chances of their own from Divock Origi and Willy Boly.

 

Forest did manage to create a big chance of their own through Origi down the right. Morgan Gibbs-White tried to play a through ball down the middle which ended up being deflected but after using his pace, Anthony Elanga managed to recover for the Reds. He played the ball across the box for Origi who took a few touches before firing past Thomas Kaminski.  Luckily for the Hatters, centre back Reece Burke managed to get back and clear the shot off the line.

 

Just a minute later, the visitors did take the lead through Chris Wood. Following pressure down the right from Neco Williams, he picked up the cleared ball and drove forward before laying off to Gibbs-White. He crossed a perfect ball without looking to Wood who was lurking in the box. The New Zealand international lifted his foot before finishing past Kaminski to score his 150^th goal in the English football leagues. 

 

Before the break, Luton thought they had found an equaliser following a corner. Unfortunately for Teden Mengi, he controlled the ball with his arm before tapping in and referee, Darren England, ruled out the goal.

 

Halftime, 0-1.

 

The Reds started the second half the better side with the goal giving them that boost they needed. A second goal looked on for the away side after Wood played in Elanga down the left of the box and he wriggled away from defenders. He got his shot away at a tight angle, looking for the far corner, but once again for Luton, a covering defender cleared the shot off the line. This time it happened to be Mengi who just received his first call up to the England under-21 squad.

 

Both sides enjoyed a good spell of possession, managing to break forward and create some more half chances. A near moment of magic from Brazilian centre back Murillo came after he was close to adding to Forest's lead. The Reds had won a free kick inside their own half and the Brazilian centre back saw Kaminski off his line and cheekily looked to chip him. Luton’s ‘keeper got back and tipped it over for a corner.

 

As the time ticked down and the away end started to get more nervy, the game slowed down in pace to the frustration of Luton. They created the next bigger chance through saved shot from substitute Andros Townsend before going on to find a late equaliser. Barkley whipped in a corner which an unmarked Burke headed down at the back post before Luke Berry swept the ball home for his first Premier League goal. Neco Williams tried to clear it on the line but just couldn’t get there in time as he had done for a previous Luton chance earlier in the game.

 

The atmosphere was increasing inside the ‘Kenny’ as both sets of fans urged their teams onto score a late winner. In the penultimate minute of stoppage time, Sels cleared the ball up the other end where Felipe headed back for Ryan Yates to have a go. His sweetly struck volley skimmed inches wide of the post. As for Luton, they had one final chance through a Carlton Morris header but it was caught by Sels and the final whistle was blown.

 

We went to a very hard place to go and pulled out a performance to be proud of. We were much better in possession after we waved off the early pressure and had the better chances which if we are to survive, need to be finding the back of the net. We also need to get better at defending set-pieces and holding onto leads because it's costing us recently and it's not good enough. Neco played brilliantly again proving why, in my opinion, he is the best right back at the club. However, I do disagree with Nuno’s decisions to not start Callum with his threat and instead play Origi. I also disagree with him going too defensive too early on in the game especially taking Morgan off because when we conceded it was very hard to find where another goal was going to come from. With the points deduction, we need to take it and kick on and show to the rest of the league that we are capable of staying up and we do have the squad for it.

 

          

Forest: Sels; Williams, Boly, Murillo, Toffolo; Yates, Sangare; Elanga, Gibbs-White (Dominguez 82'), Origi (Hudson-Odoi 75'); Wood (Felipe 75')

 

Luton Town: Kaminski; Burke, Mengi, Kabore; Ogbene, Mpanzu (Townsend 60'), Barkley, Doughty (Woodrow 46'); Clark (Berry 85'), Chong; Morris