Horrendous Hatters ditched by Dragons

Blue Square Bet Premier Wrexham 2 (2) Luton Town 0 (0)

LUTON Town suffered a hugely disappointing defeat to title-chasing Wrexham as they put in an inept performance at the Racecourse Ground last night, writes Mike Simmonds.

In front of the TV cameras, Town served up one of their worst showings of the season, especially in the first half, in what was an extremely worrying sign ahead of the impending play-offs.

Hosts Wrexham were no great shakes either, despite occupying one of the top two positions for most of the campaign. They just did the basics far better than their opponents though, winning second ball after second ball and looked by far the more settled unit.

Town boss Gary Brabin made two changes to the side who won 2-0 against Bath City, with Andre Boucaud and Aaron O’Connor replacing John Paul Kissock and Robbie Willmott who both dropped to the bench.

Striker Stuart Fleetwood also missed out after turning his ankle in training as Hatters kept faith with the 4-3-3 formation.

Wrexham took just six minutes to open the scoring though as Mathias Pogba, who scored the winner at Kenilworth Road back in October, teased the defence before sending over a delightful cross that Danny Wright glanced into the bottom corner.

Hatters had their first sight of goal on 10 minutes when Jake Howells outpaced his marker, but from a tight angle could only shoot straight at Joslain Mayebi.

Tyler came to the rescue when Janos Kovacs fluffed a back header and Dragons’ leading scorer Jake Speight twisted one way and the other, but his vicious left-footer was tipped over by the keeper.

Wrexham were then gifted their second of the evening on 39 minutes when Boucaud, under no pressure in his own area, passed straight to Keates. The diminutive midfielder still had plenty to do though, but produced an ingenious chip over Tyler and into the net.

Dragons keeper Mayebi’s erratic efforts appeared Town’s best way back into the match as he fumbled Boucaud’s meek drive from range behind for a corner.

With Luton so poor in the first period and the formation clearly not working, with Danny Crow increasingly isolated, Brabin tried to rectify the situation at the break, bringing on Craig McAllister and Willmott for Boucaud and O’Connor and switching to a 4-4-2 formation. Greg Taylor’s mazy run into the area saw the Town full-back try to win a penalty with a rather theatrical fall under Pogba’s challenge.

Nothing was given though and Wrexham immediately broke as Wright rounded the rather lumbering Kovacs but his cross across the face of goal was cleared by Ed Asafu-Adjaye with Speight waiting to pounce.

The visitors came close again when Speight stabbed into the arms of Tyler, while Luton had the ball in the net on 68 as Alex Lawless turned in McAllister’s header, but the linesman’s flag was already up.

Willmott, who impressed in his second half showing as he ran at his opponents whenever possible, threatened to pull one back on 79 minutes when his cross-cum-shot forced the back-pedalling Mayebi to tip over.

The hosts broke quickly late on through lively substitute Adrian Cieslewicz and he played in Jamie Tolley who outpaced Keith Keane before slicing off target.

Town’s efforts were summed up with three minutes remaining, when Keane went for the spectacular from distance, but thumped well, well over.

Luton’s evening then went from bad to worse as substitute Kissock was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Harris, who received a booking for his reaction as both sides clashed.

The result saw Hatters remain a massive 20 points behind leaders Fleetwood, and any thoughts of second place are swiftly disappearing in smoke too, with Wrexham now 15 points clear too with just 11 games to play.

With the play-offs beckoning for a third time for Luton, they will need to buck their ideas up and quickly, to avoid yet another season in the Blue Square Bet Premier.

Related topics: