Life in the Old Dog?

Dartford 1 Luton 0 - another away trip ends in defeat!

Last night, Luton`s hopes of achieving automatic promotion from the Conference suffered a huge blow.

A goal from Ryan Hayes after seventy-two minutes, was enough to have the home supporters amongst the 1,802 crowd jumping for joy at the realization that they`d done the double over the biggest name in the Conference.

There may be the suspicion that Luton had their eyes on bigger things, namely the FA Cup tie against Millwall this Saturday, but with promotion from the Conference seen as the Holy Grail, the situation is now getting serious.

Looking at the Conference table Luton are now a massive 14 points behind the leaders Grimsby with just 2 games in hand. Looking at the play-off places we`re 6 points behind the play-off pack, with 2 games in hand, in our eyes, and with our away record, it`s fast becoming a critical situation.

But what of last night; down at Dartford, did we deserve to lose?

Well probably not, the game could have gone either way and matters could have been better if Andre Gary`s shot hadn`t of struck the post early on. But then again, we could reflect on a few attempts when Mark Tyler came to our rescue producing some fine saves.

In the second half, Luton had further opportunities but both Andre Gray and JJ O`Donnell were denied by the Dartford keeper, Marcus Bettinelli.

The game, as previously mentioned, was settled in the 72nd minute when Hayes beat Tyler with a curling shot, from the edge of the area, leaving the 700 Hatters supporters to make their way home along the M25 and the M1.

Was February 12th the night that our hopes of automatic promotion finally died or is there life in the old dog still?

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