Luton 2-2 Cambridge

Just as Luton had come back from a 2-0 deficit in the away fixture at Cambridge, Cambridge United reciprocated to steal a draw at Kenilworth Road.

Luton had dominated the game for long periods and the Us had looked unlikely to score, so when the Hatters took a two goal lead it looked game over. However, it seemed that once they were down and apparently out, Cambridge played their best football partly due to some intelligent substitutions by Martin LIng, and Luton found it impossible to change from a holding game back to their dominant game when they needed to.

The first half was interesting as both sides stuck to their game plans to contain and keep possession and cancelled each other out. It was however, entertaining to watch, while one always felt that Luton had the edge and would eventually come out of their shell and score the requisite goals to win the match.

Richard Money made one enforced change to the victorious line up at Grays. Alan White was not risked after a bang on the head in training so Ed A-A came in at right back with George Pilkington moving alongside Shane Blackett in the centre of defence.

Cambridge almost stunned the Hatters inside 2 minutes when Jai Reason robbed Keane in the slippery conditions and hit a curler just wide.

Kevin Nicholls continued recent form to deliver some good crosses and corners and from a corner on 12 minutes Blackett got in a strong header which was charged down and as the keeper tried to collect Blackett was first to react and hooked it back causing a panicky scramble in the visitors' defence but no one was able to control it. Eventually Gallen hit it wide.

As the game settled down, the teams were stifling each other's creativity in midfield and when the Hatters managed to get the upper hand, all too often a Luton player fell foul of the offside trap.

Just before half time, Newton found Gallen and he slipped the ball first time into Craddock's run and with no attempt to play the ball Hatsworth barged into Craddock off the ball, so it was surprising that the referee was unimpressed with the Luton appeals for a penalty, especially so, when later he was in a much more generous mood. Perhaps he was reluctant to send Hatworth off, which he would have had to do had he penalised the 'challenge'

Luton upped a gear in the second half and chances began to arrive but all too often the final ball was lacking or the wrong choice was made. However, it seemed only a matter of time before one went right for them and just after the hour Gnakpa went on one of his forwrad missions and was brought down. Nicholls put in another inviting ball and Gnakpa turned it in for a 1-0 lead.

Luton settled down well after the goal and played with confidence and looked relaxed. Craddock was looking like he was brimming with confidence after a shaky couple of months and was causing problems with snaky runs and from one such he put in a dangerous cross which a panicking defence manged to clear at the second attempt, but it only fell back to Craddock who drove it powerfully into the side netting.

Nicholls was looking back in some kind of form and his distribution was tremendous all game, creating chances and panic in the visitors' defence, but Craddock slid in on one and missed contact by a whisker before firing just wide from another.

McAuley presented Newton with a chance soon after leaving him with just Potter to beat, but he couldn't hit the target.

On 79 minutes, Newton found Craddock in space in midield and from about thirty yards the youngster pulled the trigger and the ball flew past Potter into the top corner for surely an unassailable 2-0 lead with only 11 minutes left.

The second goal spurred the Us into a more concerted effort and a decent ball into the box found Wilmott free and he hit a screamer which Kevin Pilkington saved superbly but it fell kindly to Crow before Pilks II could recover and headed in for 2-1.

Surely the Town would rally and protect the three points? It seemed not when the referee, who had, remember, forcefully turned down a blatant penalty for the Hatters just before half time, made a double blunder. Another cross went unhindered across the Town area and Crow misheaded it across goal and Jai Reason did a Thierry Henri controlling it with his hand and then seemed to make contact with Fred Murray. When the whistle went I thought he'd either seen the handball or penalised Reason for fouling Murray so was gobsmacked when it bacame apparent he had given a Penalty.

However, justice was served when Pilkington outwitted Holroyd giving him a lot of goal to aim at and then diving to make the save.

Luton might have made the game completely safe, just before the end of 90 minutes, when a great move involving several players saw Gnakpa put a pass into Nicholls in a similar position to that where Craddock had scored from. The Town skipper drove it goalwards and it seemed to rise just over possibly from the slightest of deflections.

As the game moved into injury time the Town backed off and were looking to defend the 1 goal lead and as Cambridge made a last throw of the dice another hopeful ball into the penalty area caused a bit of mayhem as the wind interfered with its trajectory and Murray was fortunate not to divert it into the net but unfortunate when it clipped a post and fell to Crow. Nicholls threw himself into a challenge intending to block the shot but Crow took a touch and found himself in the line of Nicholls' unconrollable slide and slight contact was made, but enough for a second penalty to be awarded. However, it sticks in the throat when a challenge like that with little contact is penalised and a deliberate foul the other end is ignored. I'm sure the ref had this as a draw on his pools coupon.

Crow stepped forward for this one and netted for what had looked an unlikely point for the visitors.

Us boss Martin Ling said afterwards that he believed Luton can still catch Oxford and win the league and acknowledged that his side had had some luck.

Hatters boss Richard Money was happy with the performance generally but understandably displeased with the Town's propensity to allow crosses to come into the box and bounce.

uton Town: Kevin Pilkington, Ed Asafu-Adjaye, George Pilkington,Shane Blackett, Freddie Murray, Claude Gnakpa, Kevin Nicholls (C),Keith Keane, Adam Newton (Jake Howells 87),Tom Craddock, Kevin Gallen.

Substitutes not used: Andy Burgess, Shane Gore, Rossi Jarvis, Ryan Charles.