Luton Town FA Cup 3rd Round (H) 11/01/24

 

Nottingham Forest 2-0 Luton Town

Yates 40'

Sosa 68'

 

The FA Cup. A magical competition. Forest two-time winners. Their last coming back in 1959 against Luton Town. That’s who they were playing this time around. Things were different; this fixture now in the 3^rd round as both sides kicked off their run in the competition.

Championship vs Premier League. Both leagues entering at this stage of the tournament. However, last season these sides battled it out to survive in the Premier League. Tasty meetings that both ended in draws. 2-2 at the City Ground as Forest threw away a 2-goal lead late on. 1-1 at Kenilworth Road, back in March, where the hosts found an equaliser with just 3 minutes to play. For the final 2 months of the season, both sides hoped for the other to lose, creating quite a bit of a rivalry. This would make for a brilliant tie.

Rob Edwards was sacked just 2 days before the match, leaving Paul Trollope and Richie Kyle in charge of the side who made only one change to the side who lost at QPR. Nuno completely changed his whole starting 11, leaving stars such as Murillo and Gibbs-White out the squad completely. There was a return to the bench for Danilo after 147 days since breaking his ankle on the opening day. From the off, the top-flight side dominated and their quality showed. Taiwo Awoniyi had a good chance but his effort whiskered wide of the left post after a quick break. It was the Hatters who forced the first real save of the game. Harry Toffolo cleared the danger from a Luton attack, but it landed to the feet of Liam Walsh, 25 yards out. He unleashed a strike at goal and Carlos Miguel did well to tip it out for a corner. Just moments later, up the other end, Ryan Yates had a shot from the same distance himself. A loose pass from Alex Moreno made Luton think they could go on the counter, but Morato put in a brilliant tackle to stop it. Yates picked up the ball and turned but his powerful effort was stopped by the crossbar.

The Hatters had another decent opportunity to take the lead but were once again stopped by Carlos Miguel.  On the right byline, Carlton Morris was under pressure from the Forest defence. He did well to free himself before passing to Walsh on the edge of the box, who saw the run of debutant Isiah Jones into the box. The angle was against Jones so he tried to wriggle free of the Reds shirts surrounding him to get more central. He kept delaying before pulling the trigger but when he eventually did, Miguel made himself big to stop him. Forest won a free-kick on the left side of the pitch which James Ward-Prowse whipped into the box. Yates looked to flick it towards goal but the ball missed his head and hit Thomas Kaminski on the arm. Willy Boly looked to tap in the rebound but he missed too and the Hatters ‘keeper quickly gathered.

The visitors looked to be going into the break level, but the Forest captain had other plans. Toffolo and Ramon Sosa linked up down Forest’s left and the Paraguayan took a few touches before lofting in a right-footed cross into the box. Both Yates and Awoniyi were in the area but it was the unmarked midfielder who got his head to the ball and sent it bouncing into the bottom left corner. The goal definitely reminded me of Yatesy’s trademark Championship goals.

Forest looked to increase their lead right at the start half and should’ve done through Awoniyi. Sosa put Mark McGuinness under pressure deep into Luton’s half and his pass was collected by Jota Silva. He drove towards the box before passing to Awoniyi but his effort was poor as he shot straight at Kaminski. Sosa made sure the game got away from Luton, putting the Reds 2-0 up. A poor pass from Da Silva Moreira was picked out by a white shirt but the poor touch saw Yates and Walsh battle to get there first. The goal scorer did and he played a lovely first time ball over the top for Jota Silva to run onto. He carried on driving down the right as he broke into the box but he decided to unselfishly pull it across the box for Sosa to poke home.

Luton looked to decrease the deficit and came close as Thomas Holmes’ header was cleared off the line. The corner came in from the left and was flicked on at the near post by Jacob Brown. At the back post, Holmes looked to head back across goal but Toffolo was at the rescue to head it off the line and Forest could clear. Substitute Callum Hudson-Odoi looked to get in on the action and get his name on the scoresheet. Toffolo picked him out down the left and he drove forward before cutting inside for his trademark finish. However, his edge of the box effort went just over. The Hatters looked for a moment to give them a glimmer of hope and almost did from Morris. A cross from the left came in but it evaded everyone in the box. Reuell Walters picked it up on the other side of the box and lofted a cross back in for Morris. He got up to head at goal but Miguel’s reaction time was good and he got down well to make the save before Morato cleared. There were no more chances left for either side but there was a tearjerking moment. After a long 5 months out, Danilo finally returned to the pitch for the final 5 minutes as his chant rang around the whole stadium.

To say we started our B team, it was a job well done. My personal standouts were Ward-Prowse and Sosa. However, you can tell Yatesy is a real leader and plays the most consistent minutes in the premier league. Luton did have some good chances and they could’ve scored but Miguel pulled off some brilliant saves. However, Forest were clinical when we needed to be. Dani is my favourite player and I was devastated when he got injured so I’m so glad to see him back and hopefully he can stay injury free now. Everyone was so happy for him and it was amazing to see. The draw has been done tonight and we have been given Exeter away. A pretty good draw seeing as there aren’t many lower league sides left so it will be a really good opportunity to get a good cup run going. I think we all have our sights set on Tuesday night now and I am looking forward to it. Lets bring the atmosphere. We couldn’t, could we?

 

Forest: Miguel; Moreno, Morato, Boly, Toffolo, Da Silva Moreira; Yates (Dominguez 74'), Ward-Prowse (Danilo 85'); Sosa (Hudson-Odoi 74'), Awoniyi (Wood 74'), Jota Silva (Elanga 74')

 

Luton Town: Kaminski; Bell, McGuinness, Holmes, Walters; Nakamba, Walsh; Nelson (Brown 59'), Fanne (Clark 49'), Jones (Adebayo 69'); Morris