April 9 AFC Bournemouth 0-1 Luton Town Att: 9058

With Browning starting for the injured Stock, Luton kicked off and had the first effort when Vine’s cross was cleared to Brkovic whose shot sailed over the bar.

Then Browning gave the ball away and Vine’s effort went narrowly past the post. Shortly afterwards we had our first effort when Spicer’s low drive was well saved by Beresford. Spicer then provided Elliott with a defence-splitting pass. His effort beat Beresford only for Perrett to block.

Then on 22 minutes came the controversial moment: Hayter chased a through ball, Perrett came over to block but the ball bounced over him and Hayter seemed to stumble over him. The resulting red card was harsh!

O’Connor then had an attempt but his shot went straight into Beresford's arms. Luton felt they should have had a penalty when Howard went down after clipping Mills. Penalty? No. I thought he went down too easily, and he had fouled Mills before he went down.

Then on 39 minutes a Purches special from 35 yards looked to be heading for the top corner but Beresford somehow got to it for a fine save. O’Connor had another effort blocked which fell to Fletcher. He must score! No, he toe-pokes it wide of the goal. Is this the man who scored a hat trick a few weeks ago?

On the stroke of half time a Howard volley sees Moss pull off a class save to push the ball past the post.

HT: 0-0

Start of the second saw Luton win a corner. Why do we have to have all eleven in the box at corners? Underwood's corner was met by Davies. Goal! No, Hayter was there to hack the ball away. Howard then headed a Davies cross over.

On 62 minutes Luton brought on Feeney who poked an effort wide soon after coming on. Then Nicholls shot straight at Moss from 25 yards.

76 minutes saw Luton make another change: Showumni came on and could have scored from a Feeney flick-on. On 78 minutes Connell came on for Elliott.

Then on 84 minutes Luton won another corner - again we had 11 in the box. Nicholls’ inswinger was not cleared and it fell to Showumni to fire into the roof of the net. 0-1.

Rodrigues replaced the poor Browning. Beresford then pulled off a full-length save from O’Connor. Purches wasted an effort, drilling the ball over the bar. Howard had a chance at the death but wasted it.

Four losses in a row at home is not playoff standards. Luton wanted it more than we did. Fletcher and Browning were poor, Hayter had an indifferent game, Moss and the back four had a good game, Elliott was not his best. O’Connor played well, but my Man of the Match goes to
John Spicer who never stopped running and made some good breaks. His pass to Elliott deserved a goal.


AFCB: Moss, Mills, Simek, Howe, Purches, O'Connor, Elliott, Browning, Spicer, Fletcher, Hayter
Subs: Stewart, Young, Maher, Rodrigues (on for Browning, 86), Connell (on for Elliott, 86)

Steve Hunt, Shaftesbury