No match report from me for the Crawley game as I was having a week’s break in Kyrenia. I tend to average over 40 games a season following the Hatters, 43 games in 2014/15 & again 43 games in 2015/16. Why never a full set of 46 games? Well it’s never been a target of mine to do them all as I know I never will simply due to my insistence in having a few days away in September or October in Cyprus where I can completely unwind: I should also say that occasionally trains which make up about 40% of my away travel, occasionally let me down completely. Last season when the fixtures came out, I was delighted to see Crawley away in mid-October; no brainer, holiday booked. This season imagine my delight when we are due to play at the awful Crawley away in Mid-September; again an easy decision; holiday booked. That fairly decent number of games can also easily be dragged down into the mid-30’s if I decided to take a chunk out of the winter and head off to Southeast Asia or Australia: I actually listened to our FA Cup victory in the early hour of the morning in Adelaide. Why this preamble? Well simply that I find the various internet offerings, supporters sites & blogs just so very useful for keeping in touch if I am not around and can fully understand just how vital these various services are for those unable to get to games for whatever reason and especially those devoted Hatters living or working overseas. With that in mind, should I not be at a game due to travel or whatever, I will try to enlist a guest reporter to keep the site up-to-date. Our first guest report was produced by a friend of mine who I often travel to football games with; a very sensible and balanced supporter unlikely to overact to either the good or bad performances: Guest Report: The day started well, I got there early and made it to the Brewery Shades for lunch then next door to the White Hart meeting up with some fellow Hatters friends. Then disaster - we sampled all the beers on offer and decided that none were to the required standard. Even the red wine was not brilliant so back to the Brewery Shades where we were well satisfied before making our way to the stadium. The stadium is what it is, non-league but spruced up for L2. Plus points at Crawley: free parking near to the ground, probably the best toilet facilities in L2, friendly and helpful stewards. Minus points: Slow service at refreshment units, and traffic congestion exiting the area. The Crawley support has never been brilliant and they must be really struggling on their attendances - 2904 yesterday with 1052 from Luton. Looking at their home attendance figures shows that they have a home contingent of about 1800 regulars; hardly football league stuff. Hatters fans have been through many highs and lows, I would like to think that the low currently being experienced is only temporary; after all, it is only Mid September. If NJ can inspire his players to the highs of Plymouth, Cambridge and Aston Villa we will soon be back on track for a successful season. The Grimsby game was poor and the game at Crawley even worse. Individually we were better than Crawley but were well beaten, if that makes sense!! No joined up teamwork, no midfield general, poor passing, strange team selections and a lacklustre performance in the first half. We were a little better in the second half when we did force the Crawley keeper to make a few saves. A few thoughts on individual performances: Walton - excellent performance and certainly did his best to keep us in the game. O'Donnell - quite a few mistakes, one led to the second goal, lacked pace going forward and back. Mullins - good decision making but poor in the air Sheehan - fairly consistent but did not show any desire to motivate colleagues - perhaps the time has come to move him to left back with Cuthbert returning. Potts - an ok game but adds nothing to our forward play. Smith - somewhat off the pace now. Lee - poor game both in offence and defence. Cook - invisible - until in the second half he tried to beat the keeper with a chip when the latter was still on his line, not quite the highlight of the second half but close. McGeehan - I'm not a great supporter of Cam but must admit he had a decent game and was easily the pick of the outfield players. Vassell - looks promising when he gets in the game but probably needs more time. McQuoid - nothing complimentary to report and hope that this was his last appearance for us. Hylton and Marriott were second half game changers replacing Vassell and McQuiod and they did improve matters with their energy but were isolated without any support from midfield. NJ has indicated that it was a mistake to leave out one or both of the main strikers from the starting line-up. Full marks to NJ for his honesty but he has also said in the past that it is a squad game and anyone can come in and do a job. Well, something definitely learned this game then! Smith was sacrificed for Gilliead and for a short while we had the upper hand until a break-away goal finished the match. Gilliead on loan from Newcastle appears to have lots of skill but lacks pace but if we ever go from a diamond to 4.3.3 formation he is certainly worth a pick. Game changer Pele surprisingly not used. Cuthbert - sub again this time although not a game changer must surely be selected for defensive duties next time. The referee and his assistants did ok - even chalking off our "goal" for a foul was, in my opinion, correct. My thanks to out guest reporter for producing the notes from Saturday. Courtesy of youtube share and LTFC, the Nathan Jones post match interview and goals from the match.
2 Comments
Flathatter
9/20/2016 08:35:32 am
Wish I'd been on holiday but stupidly ignored your advice and went to Crawley! What a frustrating afternoon. As your reporter says another classic, trying to chip the goalie when he was stood on his line! It has been suggested in another place that there is trouble on the training ground and watching the warm-up it did seem that there were some attitude problems particularly with Pelly.
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