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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Luton 3 Charlton 1 AET (League Cup)


2-1 or 3-1 it doesn't really matter, our games in the Tier 2 cup have thankfully come to an end with a 3-1 defeat to little old Luton. With 6 goals conceded in the last two games they were getting to be a trial anyway as far as the defence was concerned even if they were useful in giving some squad players some time on the pitch. But with the next round starting to get a bit serious with lots of Premier boys around that little experience was looking to end soon anyway.
Players given a runabout yesterday included Matt Holland and Osei Sanfoka both playing their first games of the season after rather long-term injuries and Yassin Moutaouakil was also returning from injury after missing 4 games.
More worrying perhaps, was that in the absence of Iwelumo and Varney (70th minute sub for Racon), Izale McLeod was given a starting role for the 4th time, and for the first time this season was not substituted and played all 120 minutes but has still failed to get on the scoresheet and appears to have missed at least a couple of good chances, while over at Cardiff one of the men he has replaced, one Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, scored his second of the season in their 4-2 demolition of WBA. And its only September.
Back to Kenilworth Road, highlighting all our missed chances, we apparently had only 7 shots on target compared to their 11 and only 4 corners to their 12.
There's a meagre report on sportinglife where the reporter seems to have gone home at half-time while the telegraph also sent a hack to join the small crowd of 4534 at Kenilworth Road. The official cafc site tells it as it was and there's also a good report on the game from the other end at lutontown. The posh_murdoch also turned up - seems the press box was more crowded than the stands - and talks of the 'missed opportunities' by the away side.
And lastly, what does Pards have to say.
"I thought in the end Luton were slightly the better side but we still had some massive chances to win it. It was always going to be difficult making so many changes but the work rate and discipline of the team I thought was very good.
There were a few individual inconsistencies but I can suffer that and we will learn from them. I took the opportunity to rest some of the senior players and told the chairman and board of directors what I would be doing. I can't fault the players whose application was strong and in the end we were undone by a good little team in Luton."
And perhaps most significant, his last remark appears to be - "Nobody would remember it if we reached the quarter finals and finished eighth in the league.”
The Addicks: Randolph; Moutaouakil, McCarthy, Bougherra, Sankofa; Sinclair, Racon (Varney 70), Holland, Ambrose (Fortune 106); Todorov (Arter 86), McLeod.
Subs (not used): Weaver, A Thomas.
Goals: Sinclair 3
Booked: McLeod 105 (foul on Robinson)
Attendance: 4534

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