As the Eurythmics once said, “Sweet dreams are made of this, we love to grab a point or three, I travel the world and the Severn Estuary” (ok, bit of poetic licence again in there but you get the drift) – who’d have thought our beleaguered, stripped out, incredibly young squad would be sat riding so high in the table after 4 games, undefeated and with the best defence in the division? As it is, that’s exactly where we find ourselves, 2nd only to Stevenage (kudos to them for clinging on and turning their game around at Port Vale in mid-week) and riding the crest of a wave that is (for the moment) showing no signs of stopping – quite some achievement for a fresh faced squad still trying to get to grips with the brave new world we have boldly stepped into. Not that I want to bring us back down to earth with too much of a bump but this Saturday will surely be our toughest test so far as we travel to Hertfordshire to face fellow relegation sufferers and league title favourites Luton Town. Who Are You? Very much like our midweek hosts, our opponents this weekend have enjoyed a total rollercoaster over their recent history having been a non-league side as recently as 2014 following 5 years in the Conference (now National League). In the ensuing 11 years since they reached the heights of the Premier League (2023-24) but have subsequently suffered back-to-back relegations, following us out of the Championship at the end of last season – quite some ride! Going back into the mists of time though Luton Town Football Club was founded in April 1885. Prior to its formation, there were many other football clubs in the town, the most prominent of which were Luton Wanderers and Luton Excelsior. A Wanderers player, George Deacon, came up with the idea of a 'Town' club which would include all the best players in Luton. Wanderers secretary Herbert Spratley seized upon Deacon's idea and arranged a secret meeting on 13 January 1885 at St Matthew's School in High Town, near the railway station. The Wanderers committee resolved to rename the club Luton Town—which was not well received by the wider community. However, when George Deacon and John Charles Lomax then arranged a public meeting with the purpose of forming a 'Luton Town Football Club', the motion was ultimately carried, despite some protestations. A club committee was elected by ballot and the team colours were agreed to be pink and dark blue shirts and caps (so a far cry from the orange and white they now play in). Coming back up to present day and the Hatters are managed by ex-Wycombe boss Matt Bloomfield who took up the reins following the sacking of Rob Edwards back in January. Hopes were high that Bloomfield could turn around the malaise that had surprisingly set in under previous boss Edwards that had left them rooted to the bottom of the Championship table after their relegation from the Premier League at the end o the previous season. Sadly for the Hatters fans, those hopes proved misplaced with Luton succumbing to the drop after managing to climb just 2 places come the end of the season (I can’t seem to recall who replaced them at the bottom of the table, I’m sure it’ll come back to me eventually). Bloomfield’s win ratio with the Hatters currently sits at 36% with 9 wins from 25 games in charge. Squad wise there are many familiar faces as you’d expect of a team that are still receiving their Premier League parachute payments, none more so than our ex-towering centre back Mark McGuinness. I don’t think it would be unfair of me to say that McGuinness has hardly set the world alight since his big money move from the Welsh Capital, so far he has played only around half of the minutes on offer in the league for the Hatters. Former Wurzel Kal Naysmith rejoined the club he departed in 2022, taking up his 2nd stint following a loan spell last season. Naysmith would appear to be a key player for the team. Ex-Lion George Saville leads the way in the scoring/assist charts with 1 goal and 1 assist for our hosts, the experienced midfielder having previously been an integral part of Millwall’s squad until the end of last season. Another ex-Wurzel, Nahki Wells will no doubt be a bit of handful on Saturday should he get some game-time, as will ex-Jack Jerry Yates, a player who scored 10 goals in a season for Derby last year whilst on loan from the JB’s. There is also another Hatters player who actually shares his name with me (Christian and Surname), but I will remain quiet on which one due to privacy rules and the fact that he’s not very good!!! Overall, Luton have an experienced looking squad with a smattering of youngsters coming through too, so it’s understandable why they were most people’s favourites to go straight back up – but then many pundits said the same of them last season too! First And Last Our first ever game v Luton Town took place on Christmas Day 1931, a game that saw a 2-1 defeat for the Bluebirds in a Division 3 (South) match at Kenilworth Road in front of a crowd of 11,609. The 1931-32 season was the Bluebirds first back at that level following relegation from the 2nd Division the season before (sound familiar?), the plunge seeing the club release some prominent players including both Fred Keenor and Len Davies. City’s defeat at Luton on the 25th of December saw Albert Keating score our only goal that day – the team would go on to finish 9th in the 22 team division that also featured the likes of Clapton Orient, Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic and Thames (who resigned from the league and folded). The Bluebirds would get revenge for the festive defeat however by beating Luton 4-1 at Ninian Park the following day (and players complain about quick turn-arounds between games these days!!!). Albert Keating - not to be confused with Michael Keating - very different kinds of heroes! Last time out saw us suffer a 2-1 home defeat back in March of last year, a result that dragged the Bluebirds right back into the relegation mix and proved a real body blow. City actually took the lead in the game through Calum Chambers, only to see Luton hit back just 7 minutes later. Luton would go on to snatch the win in the 80th minute after Josh Bowler returned to haunt us after his shot was blocked by Dimi Goutas only to see the ball run kindly for Thelo Aasgaard to slot home. Form We go into this one off the back of a hard fought but in many ways deserved win on the road – it’s not too often in recent times we’ve been able to say that eh?? That late winner at Wimbledon cemented our unbeaten start to the season and in all honesty, I think it would be greedy of us to have expected any more than the 10 points from 12 plus a cup win that we have started this season with. Our hosts haven’t started too badly either, picking up 9 points from their possible 12 – a defeat away at much fancied Bradford being their only set-back thus far in the league (Robbie’s boys dumped them out of the League Cup). However, despite their decent start, it must be said that they appear to have been far less convincing thus far, with their opening day home win against our opponents from the weekend coming about thanks to a huge slice of fortune thanks to a late own goal winner in their favour. They have also had wins against Peterborough (2-0 away) and last Tuesday a home win v Wigan (1-0). In the fledgling league, their attack is rated the 11th best (5 goals in 4 games) and their defence 2nd best having conceded just 2 goals in 4 games (that is twice the amount we’ve shipped though!! ). On The Pitch The midweek injury to Ollie Tanner was a bit of a blow for BBM, with the winger proving fairly pivotal to how we have been playing so far this season. We can probably expect the less ‘explosive’ Willock to step in for Tanner this weekend though personally I think I’d prefer to see a rejuvenated Isaak Davies come in instead following his late winner, together with Ashford on the other flank. I think the current back 4 is pretty much picking itself now, so no signs of a way back in for Captain Chambers just yet one suspects. Up top, no-one is displacing Salech just yet, especially after seeing Robbo miss 2 good chances in midweek after he entered the fray. Despite Joel Colwills all action outing I midweek I think Davy Turnbull, with his assist coming off the back of a MoM outing last weekend will retake his place in the starting 11. Predicted Starting 11 Trott Bagan Fish Lawlor Kpakio Wintle Ashford Colwill (R) Turnbull Willock Salech The Odds Just for a change we’re actually the underdogs this week – hopefully we can ‘upset the odds’ and pull off another good result. A draw would be a decent return for our travelling Bluebirds, who will be backed by another vociferous, sold out away section and to be fair, with neither side looking very leaky right now that could be where the smart money goes. C’mon The City!!!!
I’m running out of superlatives but at end of the day, when all is said and done, that’s well tidy Brizzle.
A great piece of work Brizzle. Well done. I can't decide which Luton player you are named after but my vote goes to Lamine Fanne! I have just about got my voice back following my trip to London and will be on the road early in the morning with high hopes, but will be satisfied with a point.
