U's:3 Hatters:4

I removed a post from Sunday as it had garnered a lot of abuse from some touchy Luton fans. I hope this report doesn't offend the poor petals.

Well, where do you start with Saturday? With all that was going on off the pitch, it was a bit hard to concentrate on the action, but what was clear is that even by our low standards, the capitulation at the hands of ten-man Luton was spectacular and disappointing.

The Hatters are certainly the best team we've faced this season, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that, having established a two-goal first half lead, we should have been able to comfortably close out the match. The team seemed gripped by a collective feeling of nervousness and/or complacency, and this is something Lingy will have to eradicate sharp-ish.

Despite being second best for much of the first half, United somehow established a two-goal lead. While looking good on the ball, Luton appeared succeptible to pace on the counter attack, and a quick break from Bees saw him set up the Pittster, who drifted inside a challenge and cut a shot back across ex-scummer Mark Tyler and into the corner. Then 13 minutes later, Claude Gnapka's crude challenge on Tonkin led to a penalty, which Chrissy Holroyd converted despite the best efforts of Tyler, who got a hand to it but couldn't prevent the ball hitting the net.

The penalty looked a bit harsh to be honest, and Luton's irritation with the ref increased moments later when he sent off Liam Hatch, who picked up a second booking for a lunging tackle on Paul Carden.

Hatch had been Luton's most potent threat in the first period, bossing the off-colour Wayne Hatswell and winning practically every aerial duel. But in his absence his team mates really stepped up to the plate in the second half, passing the ball around crisply and hassling United into mistakes. Kevin Gallen halved the arrears with a close range finish, and Rossi Jarvis hit a spectacular equaliser, curling the ball home from the edge of the box. Then Hats sold Danny Potter short with a weak back header and let Gallen in. Although Pottsy parried his shot, the ball ran loose and Howells netted the rebound.

United rallied briefly, and Super Chris netted his 11th of the season from close range to make it 3-3 after Tyler had parried Hatswell's header. But it proved to be a perfect storm, and following more Luton pressure, Brian Saah was adjudged to have pushed Alan White in the box, and Gallen tucked away the resulting penalty. The U's huffed and puffed in the closing stages, but couldn't find a way past Tyler.

All in all it was a very disappointing performance, especially in the second half, when we failed to retain the ball for any period of time. The excellent Cardy aside, our midfield were conspicuous by their absence, and they will need to be a lot better if we are to get back to winning ways at Grays tonight.

A word on the ref too, who had an absolute shocker. Both penalties looked a bit dubious, and although the sending off of Hatch was probably correct, Gnapka should have followed him off the pitch in the second period when he cynically tripped Holroyd, an offence which would surely have met with a yellow card from the official had the Luton right back not already been booked in the first half. It was a blatent bottle job from the man in black, why can't these muppets ever show a bit of consistency?

Man of the Match: Paul Carden - Kept his head while those around him were losing theirs.