IRON 1 Luton 2

[ozbrit]

My first live game in over a season and I thought a draw would have been just about right. We created enough opportunities but as sometimes happens, the ball unluckily bounces too long, too short for our forwards to make a good connection. One thing which was very apparent was the way we condensed play into congested parts of the pitch. Play that game and your passing has to be Arsenal precise. I'd like to have seen players run wide and balls played out to them to open up the game, that might result in our forwards finding some space to work with when the ball is played back in front of goal.

Good game, good atmosphere and Luton looked pleased as punch on the final whistle, which is a measure of how far our club has come in the last decade.

[rustynail]

Scrappy game, we gave away the ball too much in the first half and made too many mistakes. For long sections of tha game neither side seem to be going anywhere. The Luton 2nd half goal was well worked and we hit back quickly with a goal from Dan Holman who had come on for Jordan Cox. The last ten minutes we pushed for an equaliser with renewed vigour which was good to see. Ryan Peters was probaly the Irons MOTM he worked hard all game.

[castIRONgooner]

Shame he was at fault for the first goal

[layon]

Cant agree with rustynail. Thought it was a really good game with lots of action at both ends and some good football in between.
Luton really went for it; they were always doubling up on any Braintree player with the ball, particularly Mulley and Sparkes, and seemed to win most of the 50/50 balls by being stronger in the tackle.
Would like to see our wide players playing on the side of the pitch where they can get their crosses in with their stronger foot and make better chances for the front men.
Thought we were very unlucky not to get the equaliser during the last 20 minutes which would have been well deserved.
As someone on the other match thread (Iron and proud) has said you could see from the Luton celebrations at the end just what the result meant to them.

[dbbn]

Fair summary by ozbrit; I've brought up before how narrow we play. I thought they way we were set up last night with two big guys up front; that Sparkes and Mulley would get wide and put crosses in, but this rarely happened. Peters in my opinion had a very poor game; his distribution which is average at the best of times was very poor last night. Cox didn't do enough to gain himself a start on Saturday and Sparkes disappears too often.
Playing so narrow makes it difficult to create chances and I think we need to use Mulley/Daley/Sparkes as wide wingers.
Final point; whoever that defender was who took the ball of Marks in the last seconds - brilliant tackle.

[stevet]

2 great game's in succession from the part timer's, what performances by the squad. Small errors in play can cost us but that's to be expected and you get punished for and against. That was a different Luton who stilly fired up last night, but still on another night we could and should have scored at least 4, to play narrow or wide play dictates that. My thoughts on that are progressing has moved on again this season as previously of last and before last, I'm sure new players will come in next season slowly dose it. In the meantime I'm enjoying the football the boy's are given long may it continue.

[ironmansimon]

If only we had snatched a draw for our efforts I feel that would have been a fair result. I think we missed big Al at the back and I like Sparky but feel he did not perform last night. Everything attack wise goes through sean with little variation. Also felt Kenny was quiet. Think Dan Holman did well again wonder if thats why Phil Brown was there again ??
Is it just me but I really felt Luton were nothing special, take away the gritty fat bloke ( Mcnulty), Benson and the quick Andre Gray they offered little else.They knew they played a decent team last night and for them now to be 2nd shows what a force we are now. 3 years ago they would of expected us to roll over and be thrashed. The last two games prove we have heart and are a real challenge for any team.
Very proud of the team.
I have watched the Newport highlights and am still gobsmacked at Deanos double clearance.
I have one other point, does anyone else think our pitch is already cutting up and is worried?
I personally dont think the reserves should play on it and add to the worries that could occur through the winter.
That is nothing against the reserves or the fantastic work Mark and the team do. I think its important now if a promotion challenge is a possibility we need to do everything to maybe make it happen. Would like to know anyone elses opionion

[1672]

I accept the point about keeping it wide, but the fact is that we are already getting plenty of shots on goal - the problem is that far too many are off-target! We had far more than Luton, but they won!
I have commented on these pages before that the pre-match warm up invariably includes our players taking pot-shots at goal. I generally sit and watch them and, from a more or less dead ball and with nobody from the other team breathing down your neck, a high percentage are missing wildly even then.
In my view, the best thing Devs could do to increase our goal rate (and he has lamented often in the press that we did not take our chances) is to sort this out in training. Perhaps a dummy goal with scored target areas and suitable prize for the best score over a set number of shots each.

Having said all that, I did feel that Luton outplayed us much of the time. They were quicker onto any loose ball, were winning most of the headers, normally our strong suit, and seemed to be putting far more energy into the game. As was commented earlier, they had two of ther players onto us whenever we got possession. But it would have been a different result if we could only have a few more shots on target!