Luton Town vs Crawley Town - much better

After the disappointment of Kettering, the club needed to pull off a performance and a result fairly quickly to satisfy the fans that were growing restless. And to be fair to the team, they delivered both - the performance wasn't as good as against Mansfield, but still exactly what you'd expect for in a home match against a team in the bottom half of the table, and a significant improvement on Saturday's showing. What was surprising about that was that there was only one change from the team at Kettering - the injured Andy Burgess was left out, and Claude Gnakpa made a surprise start at right-back, with Keane moved into midfield. Craddock was shifted out to the left, Newton played on the right and both players were supporting Gallen in the centre. And Luton seemed to have something about them that was missing on Saturday. Maybe it was the opposition - whilst Crawley did try and generally play football, they weren't a match for Luton when they did it, whereas Kettering were much more astute in exploiting our weaknesses in the air.

The change wasn't immediately apparent, as the first twenty minutes saw Luton have generally more possession, but only one half-chance fell to Murray, which didn't threaten the goal. Jefferson Louis also had a shot saved by Tyler in this period, after everyone missed a dangerous cross.After that moment Luton were on top, although whether the goal would come was a different matter. A good move from Luton resulted in Jarvis being put through on goal, but he dragged his shot wide on his weaker foot. One thing that could have had a positive effect on the team was the crowd. They weren't as vocal as they can be, but there were no noises of frustration or booing in the early periods either. The goal probably came at the right time to prevent that - Crawley made a mess of clearing Nicholls' corner and the ball fell to the predator in front of goal George Pilkington, who slotted the ball away. All ten outfield players then went straight to the bench and Harford to celebrate the opening goal, which is surely a sign that whatever some fans think about him, the players are behind him. After that goal, the fans and players relaxed, which probably helped the performance as well. The period up to half time saw little goalmouth action, with the only shot on target coming from Louis again, with an effort that was saved comfortably by Tyler.

The second half saw Luton come out as the better team, and the first chance of the half fell to Craddock after good work from Newton. From a narrow angle, Craddock fired wide when maybe he should have tested the keeper. Just like the first half, Luton pressed for a goal without creating any real chances, until just past the hour. I personally felt that Nicholls' corners on Saturday were terrible, and some yesterday weren't much better either. However, it's difficult to complain when our first two goals came from those corners. The corner for the second goal was perfect - a superb ball over to the far post that gave Pilkington the simplest of headers for his fourth of the season. Three minutes later, the game was over, as another perfect cross, this time from Newton, was met by a header from Craddock. Jordan in the Crawley goal probably should have kept it out but he let it squirm underneath him and over the line for a third goal. From then until the final whistle, Luton played a reasonable passing game in general, with Gallen, Craddock and Jarvis combining well on a number of occasions. On one of those, Jarvis played an excellent ball through to Craddock, who maybe should have got his second but was denied by a good save from Jordan. The only other moment worth mentioning was an excellent run from Gnakpa from his own half to the edge of the box that saw him win a free-kick. After warm applause for the run from the home fans, Gnakpa walked over to the main stand, where someone in the enclosure seemed to offer him a bottle of water, which he drank whilst milking the cheers from the Luton fans. Asa Hall made his return from injury off the bench, where he didn't have time to make an impact, and Donnelly made his home debut from the bench with similar time restraints. Crawley did attack, but never threatened Mark Tyler in the Luton goal or the defence, which looked as solid as ever. The ever changing defence will no doubt take heart from the fourth clean sheet in a row - it's certainly the longest amount of time I can remember us not letting a goal in.

Man of the Match - George Pilkington. Scored the two goals and defended very well, along with the other three defenders. Gnakpa was impressive going forward and even defended well. I also think Jarvis is improving - he made a few key passes during the match. Craddock didn't look like he could beat his man in the first half, but got better as the game went on.