Cardiff 0 Luton Town 0

Last updated : 26 August 2002 By Footymad Previewer

Cardiff City dropped more home points after they were held to a scoreless draw by a Luton side that had leaked 14 goals in their previous four games.

City boss Lenny Lawrence kept faith with his 4-3-3 formation following the Bluebirds success at Swindon on Saturday but he was foreced to switch to a five-man midfield for the second half as the Luton defence stood firm.

City were far from fluent in the opening period with only a crisp 20-yard shot from Peter Thorne troubling Hatters on-loan keeper Ben Roberts.

Former Bluebird Russell Perrett won most of his aerial battles with City's leading scorer Leo Fortune-West but the match was dominated throughout both halves by the whistle of fussy referee Paul Danson who blue with monotonous regularity.

Goalmouth incidents were few and far between though City keeper Neil Alexander had to be alert to turn a 55th minute shot from Steve Howard and then he did even better to keep out a point blank shot from late substitute Steve Robinson.

In the final minute, Robert Earnshaw who had come on for the ineffective Andy Campell on the hour struck the post with Roberts beaten.

"I think a draw was a fair result," said Bluebirds boss Lennie Lawrence.

"We could well have lost a match if Alexander had not made a save in the game but then there again if Earnie's shot had won it for us it would have been most unfair for Luton."

Luton manager Joe Kinnear was very pleased to gain a point at Ninian Park: "It was very nice to stop the goals going in. We played well and even had the best chance of the game.

"We expected a lot of aerial passes and that is what we got in the second half but we have practised them all week and my centre-backs defended very well."