Insipid Hatters lurch to another away day defeat

Hatters season lurched from one disaster to another with a thoroughly abject 2-0 defeat at part-time Braintree Town tonight, who completed the double over their opponents in the process, writes Mike Simmonds.

The loss extended Luton’s dismal run to nine Blue Square Bet Premier away matches without a win as they dropped to 10th place, below the likes of Woking and are now only two points above Tamworth.

Town made two changes to the side as Arnaud Mendy and Stuart Fleetwood came in for Scott Neilson and Dave Martin who dropped to the bench.

With new manager John Still watching on alongside assistant Terry Harris, a dire opening 20 minutes was livened up when the hosts’ centre-half Matt Paine was dismissed for a high challenge on Mendy.

The game failed to get any better on a horrible surface though as Town struggled to create any attempts on target, with Lathaniel Rowe-Turner just nicking the ball off Sean Marks’ toe as he threatened to race clear

Referee Michael Bull evened things up on 34 minutes as Wayne Thomas was given a straight red for an off-the-ball incident with Marks after a throw-in.

Braintree managed to break the deadlock three minutes before half time when Steve McNulty was nutmegged far too easily by Dan Holman and, from his cross, Marks deftly flicked past Mark Tyler.

The onlooking Still left his place in the stands for the half time team talk as Luton made one change with Greg Taylor replacing Rowe-Turner.

It didn’t have the desired effect though as Iron moved 2-0 ahead within seconds when Kenny Davis was given all the time in the world to head past Tyler at the far post.

Town made all their changes by the 62nd minute to try and glean something from the game with Neilson and Simon Ainge coming on, but still couldn’t muster an effort of note, as Andre Gray’s header dribbled into Nathan McDonald’s gloves.

Fleetwood finally worked McDonald after racing clear of the defence, but his tame curler was easily parried.

That was about it though as, despite enjoying more and more territory as the game wore on, an insipid Town never looked capable of finding a way through and could have lost by even more, but James Mulley scuffed wide in the closing stages.

Iron: Nathan McDonald, Ryan Peters, Sam Habergham, Dean Wells, Alan Massey, Luke Daley (Nicky Symons 28), James Mulley, Matt Paine, Kenny Davis, Dan Holman (Dan Sparkes 70), Sean Marks. Subs not used: Jordan Cox, Ryan Watts, Aaron Wickham.

Hatters: Mark Tyler, Lathaniel Rowe-Turner (Greg Taylor 46), Steve McNulty, Alex Lawless, Scott Rendell (Scott Neilson 56), Stuart Fleetwood, Arnaud Mendy (Simon Ainge 61), Wayne Thomas, Jonathan Smith, Ronnie Henry, Andre Gray. Subs not used: Dave Martin, Dean Brill.

Referee: Michael Bull.

Assistant Referees: Graham Kinnear, Jonathan Burridge.

Fourth official: Christopher Pollard.

Booked: Mendy 15; Habergham 75.

Sent Off: Paine 21; Thomas 34.

Attendance: 1,003.