Luton head for play-offs

Congratulations to Stevenage Borough, who clinched the BSP title with a solid victory at Kidderminster on Saturday. They have been consistent over the whole season, while Luton took too long to get into their stride, and they deserve their promotion.

In a truly boring match, Altrincham did to Luton what they did to Stevenage on Tuesday night - play damage limitation football. Unfortunately for Luton and fortunately for Borough, Stevenage scored very early on Tuesday, and then had very little threat from their hosts, while Luton failed to take the few chances on offer as Altrincham packed their defence with everyone behind the ball for most of the afternoon.

Richard Money names an unchanged side for the match but lost Keith Keane before the game started when his knee was tweaked and he felt it would be better to sit this one out. He knew what he was doing because it was a dire and frustrating game.

Asa Hall came in for Keane and gave a good performance considering he has been out of favour during Luton's long and consistent run of form, It is to be hoped that this game has not leached the confidence out of the side with the play-offs looming.

My only criticism is that when a team has 7 or 8 defenders in the penalty area our forwards should be trying to take them on as they can get in each other's way and could mistime a tackle for a penalty kick. Luton seemed to try to pump high balls in with the percentage of success poor with so many defenders in attendance, or tried long shots which merely hit defenders and went clear.

Luton's build up play was again very good but the frustration of coming up against so many players in defence was apparent.

Occasionally, a long shot managed to penetrate the defence but, in each case, Coburn in goal managed to save the day for Altrincham.

The fans were unimpressed when Ed A-A was taken off to bring on Barnes-Homer and Hatch, but it was a bold and logical move by Richard Money, with Freddy Murray the other player making way.

Altrincham would not have scored if they had still been out there on Sunday morning and couldn't have found the Luton half without Sat Nav.

With news arriving that Stevenage were leading all afternoon at Kidderminster, the result here did not matter for much in the end, and we must now suffer the lottery of the play-offs. However, two months ago we did not look like getting anywhere near Oxford or Stevenage and barring a bizarre sequence of results we are assured of second place, which is a testament to Richard Money's skill in balancing the side and getting them to play as a unit. We are the form team going into the play-offs and hopefully that will continue, whomever we play first.

If Oxford fail to win on Tuesday evening, I would not be surprised if Money opts to give some of the fringe players a run out at Rushden on Saturday, to give the first teamers a rest and prevent Rushden from having a first hand look at us, since we may find ourselves playing them in either the semi finals or the final.

Luton Town: Tyler; Asafu-Adjaye (Barnes-Homer 64), Blackett, Pilkington, Murray (Hatch 64); Newton, Hall, Heslop, Howells; Gallen, Craddock.

Substitutes not used: Kovacs, Nelthorpe, Jarvis.

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