Luton Town II 1 Potters Bar 6
Saturday 17th October 2009

Team: E Newbery (Capt), G Smith (GK), B Graham, V Patel, O Hughes, R Donoghue, M Calderwood, M Tomkins, M Edson, E Whybrow, C Chittleborough, M Turpin, M Levy
Scorers: E Whybrow (3), M Tomkins (2), M Turpin

Umpire: C Edwards

Having watched the entire 10 minutes that was played in the abandoned 3rd team match, your intrepid match reporter set off for DAOS for the 2nd team game against Blueharts V, only to find, following a late change of goalkeeper, his young lad had been drafted into 1st the game at Luton Town. Whilst I can therefore report on behalf of the 2nd team that they made a bright start with an early cross from Boris being swept home by Doris(!), I can say no more about their excellent 6-1 victory. Instead I travelled much further (and got considerably colder on a Luton hillside) in order to report on an equally comprehensive 6-1 success by the first team. (Oddly the Ladies 2nd team succumbed earlier in the day to a 6-1 defeat and therefore it was surprising to later discover that the Ladies 1st team had not produced the same result!)

The game started off slightly tentatively but Bar soon got into their stride and already in the early stages were showing touches and pace that were likely to be too much for a generally older Luton Town outfit. Ben Graham and Owen Hughes were looking confident at the back with the midfield and attack constantly making attacking runs with Ed Whybrow, Miles Tomkins and Mark Turpin always looking dangerous.

There was one early scare when Luton’s young forward scampered past Ed Newbery, but when that effort was saved by Geoff Smith, Luton’s best chance to remain competitive had ended. 3 goals came in the space of 9 first half minutes to put Bar almost out of sight with only 19 minutes gone. Ed Whybrow turned in a close range effort on 10 minutes following some good work on the right hand side; then a through ball led to another easy tap in for Miles Tomkins after 14 minutes. Michael Levy, making a surprise debut, should have scored with his opening hit, but fortunately his attempt at a massive back swing from 3 yards was not cleared properly and Ed Whybrow showed him how it should be done!

The Luton Town players had little legitimate answer to the wave of Bar attacks and instead turned somewhat cynical in their efforts. One tackle that illegally ended a marvellous Ed Whybrow run to the edge of the D (leaving Ed with an immediate golf ball size lump on his leg, despite being protected by the shin pad) remarkably left Ed with a green card for his understandable show of annoyance, rather than suitable punishment for the Luton defender. The half time team talk (no oranges for the 1st team it seems!) was brief – keep your composure and score more goals! (There you go Ed, I didn’t quote you!)

The second half continued where the first had left off. Almost immediately Miles Tomkins made it 4-0 and there were plenty more opportunities with leading scorer Mark Turpin always in the thick of things and going close. He finally scored on 55 minutes as he was well found by Miles Edson and neatly deflected the ball past the onrushing keeper. Three minutes later and the score was 6 – this time Turpin was the provider from the right as Ed Whybrow turned it home to complete his hat trick. He would have made it a 4 goal haul a few minutes later, but his strike from a short corner was ruled out.

A word for debutant Michael Levy in that after a nervous start he seemed to blossom as the game progressed, ending up playing the entire second half on the left hand side and not looking out of place in this company.

A bit of concern with 10 minutes remaining when Mark Turpin chased a through ball, and having landed awkwardly after jumping over the keeper, went crashing to a heap. Hopefully this recurrence of an old knee injury (and the sight of him walking away at the end of the game) will see him back pretty quickly.

The break in play and the upheaval to the formation led to a bit of reduced concentration in the last few minutes that allowed Luton the opportunity for a consolation goal with 6 minutes left. This couldn’t take the gloss off what was an excellent performance that makes it 4 wins out of 4 following last season’s promotion.

by Anthony Levy