An away match against a team that have won their last twelve home league matches is never going to be an easy game, especially for a team who have only won one meaningful away match in the league since the end of 2006. Unsurprisingly, it turned out that Luton would pick up nothing from the long Tuesday night trip to Carlisle, and the Cumbrians extended their winning run to 13 home matches, as well as six victories in a row.
Harford handed Ryan Charles his first ever start alongside Paul Furlong up front. Lewis Emanuel and Paul McVeigh started on the wings, with Matthew Spring and David Bell in the centre, due to Robinson and O'Leary being unavailable. Keane and Perry started at centre-back, with Keano deservedly being given the captain's armband, and Jackson and Sol as full-backs. Carlisle were unchanged from the team that beat Brighton at the weekend.
In the end, despite the inevitability of the result, the hundred or so Luton fans would have been disappointed at the final outcome. Whereas in previous games our defeats have been deserved by our performance, last night was different. The first half was the same old story though. Luton started quite brightly, but only managed to create one real chance, with David Bell shooting wide from outside the area. A few more crosses were put into the box, but the chances didn't fall. At the other end, Carlisle were having their fair share of chances, with Dean Brill having to make a couple of saves to keep Carlisle out. He could do nothing about the first goal, however. Danny Livesey was able to find space in the box and finished well past Brill and the defenders on the line to put Carlisle ahead. I'm not really sure who was supposed to be marking Livesey, and to be honest, I don't think any of the Luton players knew who was supposed to be marking him either. From this point on in the first half, the players' heads dropped, and Carlisle took control of the match. From another corner ten minutes later, Brill made a couple of saves to keep Carlisle away. The ball was then cleared and played back into the box. Brill then came for the ball, got nowhere near it and Peter Murphy was able to nod into an empty net for his first goal of the season. Had Brill stayed on his line, he would have gathered the ball easily, and the Dean Brill from December would have made the right choice, but the talented young keeper appears to have lost his confidence, ever since having to play when injured against Swansea in January.
For the rest of the half, Luton showed very little endeavour, and very little commitment sadly. Keith Keane came closest, with a shot from a corner which went straight into Westwood's hands. Bell also managed a threatening cross towards the end of the half, which went straight through to Jackson on the other wing, who fell over as he tried to put the ball back into the box. A woeful half for Luton, and half-time couldn't come soon enough for the Hatters. The best player of the half was difficult to choose, but I'd probably go for young Ryan Charles, who at least looked lively when going forward, but in all honesty there wasn't much to choose from. Jackson was the worst Hatter in the first half, but he was by no means the only player who didn't perform.
In contrast, the second half was very promising from a Luton point of view. Another bright start to the half resulted in the ball falling to Bell outside the area. A few twists and turns in the style of Darren Currie followed, before he shot past Westwood and gave Luton the equaliser. The team were buoyed by the goal, and the hundred or so Luton fans were in good voice for the rest of the half, although I'm not sure that anyone past the halfway line could hear us anyway. The home fans, after being reasonably vocal in the first half, were quiet throughout the second half, and as we started singing, were being 'outsung by fifty'. The promise that Carlisle had shown in the first half had evaporated, and it was Luton that were looking the more likely to score. Again, however, no clear cut chances were created. Furlong shot over the bar and Paul McVeigh surprised everyone with a good effort from outside the box that Westwood had to tip over the bar for a corner after about 60 minutes. In contrast, Carlisle created virtually nothing, in fact their most creative player turned out to be Chris Perry, who twice played back passes to Dean Brill without looking back, and only the quick thinking of the young keeper saved Luton.
Unfortunately, no clear cut chances were created by Luton, although Lewis Emanuel did have a goal disallowed in the last ten minutes. I'm not really sure why it was disallowed; Emanuel certainly wasn't offside and there didn't appear to be a foul, but there weren't many complaints from the players so there must have been some sort of infringement. Talbot and Parkin came off the bench, made some nice touches, and Talbot ran around a lot and looked reasonably dangerous at times, but Carlisle's defence were fairly untroubled.
The commitment of the players has been questioned in recent weeks, and from the first half showing it was clear why people had grievances against some of the players. However, Mick can at least be sure that the effort was satisfactory in the second half, it just turned out to be too late to pull the game back. As for the question of man of the match, no one player was head and shoulders above the rest. Ryan Charles was good in the first half, but did very little in the short space of time he was on the field in the second half. Paul McVeigh was probably just as good as anyone in the team, looking fairly dangerous throughout, Bell also had one of his better games out of position. I'd probably say the best players were Keith Keane and Sol Davis, who both kept Carlisle safely at bay in the second half, and were also the first players to clap the travelling Luton fans after the final whistle. Overall, it was a good improvement on what we have seen in recent weeks, and hopefully we'll improve again for Saturday's match against Oldham.
Player Ratings: Dean Brill: 5.5, Richard Jackson: 5, Sol Davis: 7, Keith Keane: 7, Chris Perry: 6, Lewis Emanuel:6, Matthew Spring: 5.5, David Bell: 6.5, Paul McVeigh: 6.5, Ryan Charles: 7, Paul Furlong: 6
Subs - Talbot: 6, Parkin: 6.