The match started off quietly, with just one chance in the first ten minutes. Howard had a decent effort deflected for a corner, which came to no avail. Brill also showed his inexperience by not coming for a dangerous cross which Sol had to head over for a corner. Throughout the game, Brill's main problem was definitely crosses. Everytime OFK got onto the wings, he could be heard to shout "No crosses", and those that did come over, he could have dealt with better. He certainly didn't have a problem making himself heard - I don't think any of us have ever heard him so loud.
Then came the goal. Kevin Foley was put through on goal and his shot was saved well by the keeper, although he probably should have scored it. In the end it didn't matter, as the ball spun above Howard, who beat the defender to head in a simple goal. 1-0 Luton.
About halfway through the first half, Underwood put in a decent effort, which just curved away from the goal and wide from outside the area. Underwood had much more shots than usual as well. On the half-hour mark, he hit another shot from outside the area which was scuffed by the keeper and went out for a corner. Perhaps this could mean that Unders will improve his scoring ratio next season - last year when he had a good chance he took it, and he only had about six or seven all season. Last night he certainly wasn't afraid to have a go. Howard also had a go at taking a free-kick, which was well blocked by the wall around the 25 minute point.
The turning point in the match came when Curtis Davies picked up a head injury on 33 minutes and had to go off. As he went off, OFK launched a dangerous attack and nearly found their way through. Leon Barnett came on to replace him, and although he didn't do too badly, Davies was missed in defence. Leon Barnett made a couple of good interceptions, but won nowhere near as many headers as Curtis had done. OFK started to press more, and congratulations must go to the player who managed to hit the top of the Kenilworth Road end from about 8-10 yards out. Nothing like that has been seen since the days of Liam George, Peter Thomson, Stuart Douglas etc. On 41 minutes, Howard gave away a free-kick just outside the box. OFK curled it around the wall and into the bottom left corner of the net - a beauty. 1-1.
Nicholls came close with a free-kick which went just over on half time, but otherwise the half ended without any further action. The second half saw OFK make a few changes, including a change of keeper, but Newell made none. The second half was a lot quieter than the first, with less clear cut chances. A well worked corner routine saw Robinson hit a low corner into the box, finding Underwood at the far post. Unders hit a decent effort, but saw his shot go into the side netting. Nicholls showed that he didn't consider the game to be a friendly by nearly decapitating an OFK player three minutes later.
Surprisingly, the game saw three players booked - one Luton player after an hour (either Sol or Nico - the goalkeeper got in the way so I couldn't see) and two OFK players. The match wasn't particularly dirty, although Nicholls definitely made a few tackles that made us wince. Robbo was the only other player who picked up an injury, halfway through the second half, although luckily for us it clearly wasn't serious as he came backon the pitch after some treatment from the physio. Enoch replaced Feeney up front with about 20 minutes to go. OFK then went and scored shortly after this. 2-1 to OFK with 17 minutes to go.
Enoch made his presence known with 15 minutes to go by dribbling round two OFK players on the right wing, although nothing came of the move. Luton carried on attacking, even when an OFK player was lying injured in the Hatters half. They must do things differently in Serbia and Montenegro because the OFK physio's ran onto the pitch whilst the game was still in progress and when Luton were trying to create a chance. The game restarted when an OFK player kicked the ball back to Brill. If that had happened in a league game, the Luton faithful would have been fuming, as it was it was simply seen as an amusing distraction.
With 9 minutes to go, Dean Morgan came on for Brkovic and Peter Holmes came on for Robbo. Not long after, Sol won a free-kick on the left-hand side of the OFK box. Nicholls took it quickly, and Howard was quickest to run forwards and head it into the back of the net. If the keeper had been awake, we wouldn't have scored it, but it was still good thinking by Nicholls and Howard. 2-2.
The match ended without many other incidents. Enoch missed two half-decent chances, Morgan performed some very nice trickery and OFK should have scored, but their player diverted his shot wide.
Overall, a good performance by Luton. Particularly impressive were Nicholls and Brkovic. Nicholls again controlled the game from midfield, and Brko showed his quality had not disappeared over the summer, making some very good touches and making sublime cross-field balls.