The week's news from Kenilworth Road

Last updated : 28 January 2005 By Peter Bulkeley
Monday - The club announced that the Good Friday home fixture against Barnsley has been moved to 2.45pm to allow live coverage on Sky. Mike Newell said that Luton were fortunate that rivals Hull slipped up with their defeat at Doncaster over the weekend. He added that Hull would deserve to win the league if they kept up their good form.

Tuesday - Mike Newell admitted that Keith Keane and Peter Holmes had not been getting enough first team matches this season. Newell said they were both good players but had suffered from a lack of first team opportunities.

Wednesday - The club announced that the important clash against Hull City on February 12th will be beamed back to the KC Stadium, as Hull have already sold their 1,800 seat allocation. The reserves came from 2-0 behind to beat Gillingham reserves 3-2. Gillingham played a reasonably strong side including ex-Wales international Iwan Roberts and ex-Celtic forward Tommy Johnson. The goalscorers were Calvin Andrew, a triailist from Spurs and Matt Hall, a schoolboy. Brian Stein said that there was no need to buy players who were not already better than those already getting into the team, and Marlon Beresford spoke about his record of only losing 2 league games in 32. Bez said that it was good to be playing behind a settled back four, and that he wasn't getting carried away about his superb performance at Colchester, saying that he made a few routine stops, which is a modest way of putting it.

Thursday - Brian Stein said that the Hatters were feeling the pressure of being at the top, but they were coping well with it. Hull took the lead a few weeks ago from Luton, but only held it for one match, and Stein said that life was tough at the top because everyone wanted to beat you.

Friday - Mike Newell said that left-back Sol Davis was close to signing a 1-year extension to his contract. The full-back has improved considerably since last season, and Newell also revealed that contract talks were ongoing with Ahmet Brkovic and Kevin Nicholls. Tranmere boss Brian Little also spoke about Luton, saying that he thought the Hatters had the best eleven players in the league, but the win on Saturday wasn't completly out of reach.