After such a splendid show at home to Yeovil last Saturday and also following the cup defeat against Ipswich, it was time for our first away trip of the season. Barnet is a fairly easy place for most Hatters to get to so that’s a plus that enabled over 2000 travelling Hatters to attend the wide open space of the Hive.
Nathan named the same starting eleven as used against Yeovil with new signing Harry Cornick, a wide man NJ intends to convert to a not so wide man, having a place on the bench. Fairly soon after the start of the game Johnson of Barnet hurt his knee in a tackle and had to be replaced. Then on 20 minutes, captain Cuthbert seemed to strain his thigh/hip whilst stretching for a ball and had to be replaced by Glen Rea. Well in truth the two stoppages and substitutions were really the most notable events from that first 20 minutes apart from two Town moves that saw Pelly place a low shot off target and wide of the post & that dangerous man, and I honestly reckon he is great in the box, Potts, bringing a good save from the Barnet keeper. It really was a very forgetful first half and I surprised myself by putting a few more lines together whilst on the train that I thought I would be able to: oh, the final highlight of the half was the referee blowing his whistle to give us all a break. The general discussion amongst supports ranged from we will do much better in the second half to a point would not be a bad result. The way the second period started suggested that things were unlikely to improve: maybe that comment is a little unfair as although neither side appeared to my eye to be really poor, equally neither side looked good. I am not one to bang on about this formation or that formation or the knowing nod when folk talk of the diamond; to my view, football is a far simpler game than that and we did not help ourselves in the delivery of that simple game. We played far too narrow in a game that was calling out for some wide play and on such a spacious pitch. Vassell and Collins were well marked, in Vassell’s case often by two players: just how did Barnet manage to get 12 players on the pitch without the ref noticing? You would have thought that 12 man remark was indeed true as our team simply failed to find space or stretch the home defence; surely we were crying out for a winger to replace the luckless Shinnie who spent far too much of the afternoon slipping onto his arse; did the bench not notice that? We certainly had two wide men in Gambin and Cornick on the bench but when NJ decided to make a change he hooked off “slipper Shinnie” and replaced him with Jordan Cook. Now I am all for introducing Cook from the bench in the coming weeks when we are hopefully well in command of a game; I actually think he needs that soft introduction to build his confidence but yesterday where a scraper or wide player was needed, was surely not the place and time for Cook’s rehabilitation. The second substitution, this time with Vassell, who had been well marked out of the game, with Elliot Lee coming on, was again maybe not the best of choices as Elliot is more of a one for feeding in the box and we were just not getting much into the box; surely the allegedly pacey Cornick would have been a better option. As the game spluttered into injury time, McCormack lost possession and Barnet scored with a very sweet strike from range that whistled past the outstretched Stech to send the Hatters to their first defeat of 2017/18. In a way, although Barnet are probably a typical and useful L2 side and certainly not outstanding, you feared the late goal may happen and wham bang it certainly did. So there we go, trotting off to our various locations with eight goals scored and three conceded in the first two games so let's not get too down about yesterday’s defeat. However, I suspect that we have plenty more such “Barnets” to face who will do their homework on Nathan’s way of playing. Overall Impression: We were not good, neither were we bad yesterday and indeed you could say similar of Barnet. Our stars today; well in midfield, it was Pelly by a long way with slippy Shinnie spending far too much time falling on his arse. In attack, Collins tried very hard but frustratingly had to go wide to try and find some space. I would say that with the exception of Pelly and Potts that everybody else simply no better than average and sadly so often inconsistent in the execution of the simple aspects of the game. Was Nathan a touch out with his tactics, particularly the narrow style of play and use of subs? Well apart from the unfortunate early loss of captain Cuthbert; I would say yes. On the other hand, the Barnet coach, the absolute rookie 32-year old Rossie Eames, did his homework well on Luton denying players space, closing them down and using Barnet’s superior physical strength against us. I have no idea if either Rossie or Nathan will have wonderfully successful coaching careers but what I can say if that Rossie played his hand of cards better than Nathan did. I rather suspect that we will come up against sides that will not be able to cope with our style of play and against these we will do well but equally, I suspect that many sides will have coaches that will be smart enough to do a Barnet on us. Yet, it's not the end of the world; there is a long way to go and we have not reached the end of August yet so no panic or doom but we need to be better than we were today. Just as a final thought, you could argue that back in April when we won by 1-0 that we were not much better than yesterday’s performance and could easily have lost by 3-1 had “barn door Akinde” taken three relatively easy chances that he was presented with. A few thoughts on individual players performances: Stech: coped well enough and came out to collect the ball as required but not under an amazing amount of pressure during the game. Stacey: a very mixed game with some decent interceptions and some wayward passing. Potts: yes, Potts looked very solid and probably the pick of the defenders and also always a threat in the opposition's box from dead ball kicks. Cuthbert: he was doing well during his 20 minutes on the pitch. As he is the best header in the back four I really hope he is back for next Saturday. Sheehan: average adequate game defensively and also had a decent free kick deflected away from goal. McCormack: sadly he was not at last week’s level of performance and seemed to lack concentration later in the game; perhaps he was feeling the physical strain. Olly Lee: another with a mix of good and not so good; fairly well looked after by Barnet. Pelly: by some distance our best player yesterday, physically not willing to be bullied and determined in his forward play. Shinnie: whatever type of footwear was he wearing, was it carpet slippers? He slipped onto his arse to lose possession about five times in the first half. Slipping apart, he was closely marked out by Barnet and fairly well negated. Vassell: he did try but after such a transfer speculation week he was not at his best and again well marked by Barnet. Collins: I thought that Collins did reasonably well and his “league 2” helped him more than many other Luton players but it was difficult for him to find space yesterday and at times he was forced out wide to gain possession. The subs: Rea: did well enough and had a fairly decent game; let’s face it he is a developing defender and not a midfield player. Cook: neither good nor bad and to be fair he did make a couple of decent passes but as I keep saying, he is just so lacking in self-belief and until he overcomes that obstacle I doubt he will succeed. E Lee: only on for a few minutes. The Hatter Line up: Stech, Stacey, Sheehan, Cuthbert (Rea), Potts, McCormack, Mpanzu, Lee. O, Shinnie (Cook), Collins, Vassell (Lee. E). Subs not used: Shea, Mullins, Cornick, Gambin.
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Hi there, welcome to my site where I chronicle various things about the Hatters, a team I have followed since the mid 60’sArchives
December 2017
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