Minus 30 But Not Out.
Who would have thought it? 2 seasons ago both the Mighty Shrimpers and The Hatters were playing against some of the best sides in English Football.
Now Luton are on the verge of relegation from the football league less than 3 years after they were playing football in the coca-cola championship,
also with the club going into administration on a number of occasions and two point deductions in one season and one the previous season the future
doesn't look good for the people of Luton Town Football Club.
The FA Cup is where dreams can be made or broken. So LTFC will be looking to win this game and pull a nice dream tie against Manchester United
mainly for financial purposes. They are in deseperate need of cash so every penny counts when it comes to Luton. The last time these two teams met
at Roots Hall was last season in the league the 8th of March saw the blues cruise to a 2-0 win against free falling Luton. With goals from Nicky
Bailey and James Walker. Luton scrapped through their 1st round replay tie against Altrincham on penalties to secure an away tie at Roots Hall.
Luton's Cup Results This Season:
Altrincham - FA CUP (A) - 0-0 - Luton win on Pens
Altrincham - FA CUP (H) - 0-0
Walsall - JPT (A) - 0-1 - Jarvis
Brentford - JPT (H) - 2-2 - Hall, Martin - Luton win on Pens.
Reading - League Cup (A) - 5-1 - Charles
Plymouth - League Cup (H) - 2-0 - Jarvis, Plummer.
Luton's Cup runs this season:
FA Cup - Still in, 2nd Round vs Southend United
League Cup - Knocked out in the 2nd round vs Reading
Johnstones Paint Trophy - Still in, Area Semi Final vs Colchester United.
They have won two of their cup games on penalties out of their 2 games that went to penalties.
How the teams lined up the last time they met at Roots Hall:
Southend United: Flahavan, Francis, Clarke, Barrett, Gower, Robson-Kanu, Black, Mulgrew, Moussa, Bailey, Walker.
Subs: Hunt, Collis, Liptak, Grant, Scannell.
Luton Town: Brill, Jackson, Perry, Keane, Spring, McVeigh, Bell, Goodall, Robinson, Furlong, Talbot.
Subs: Beavan, Currie, Parkin, Andrews, Charles.
How the teams lined up in their last FA Cup game:
Southend United: Mildenhall, Francis, Clarke, Barrett, Herd, Grant, Christophe, McCormack, Betsy, Scannell, Walker.
Subs: Joyce, Sankofa, Lokando, O'Keefe, Ademeno, Hazell
Luton Town: Logan, Gnakpa, Roper, Spillane, Howells, Keane, O'Connor, Nicholls, Hall, Martin, McVeigh.
Subs: Brill, Andrews, Talbot, Jarvis, Davis, Worley, Sinclair
Southend United have 10 changes to the squad since they last played Luton Town.
Luton Town have 12 changes to the squad since they last played Southend United.
The Gaffer:
Mick Harford - 49 year old former player who had a playing career of 21 years. He played for 10 different clubs including playing for Chelsea. Mick
had two stints with Luton Town making 168 appearances and scoring 69 goals. Mick was an out an out striker scoring plenty of goals in his career and
in 2004 became the caretaker boss at Nottingham Forest, he was then put in charge of Rotherham United in 05. After a season Harford joined his mate
at Colchester United Geriant Williams in summer 06. Harford then left Colchester to become the assistant at QPR and then left after the appointment of
De Canio. It was not untill January 2008 that Harford finally joined up with Luton Town again after years of speculation. Harford hasn't got the
greatest record as a manager and will be out to win this game.
The Likely Line Up:
Conrad Logan - 22 Year old, 6ft 2 Goalkeeper currently on loan from Leicester City. Started his youth career with Swilly Rovers in Ireland and was later
snapped up by Leicester City in 2004 and has a made a few appearances for the Foxes but has spent most of his time out on loan. His most successful being
with Stockport County last season helping them to clinch promotion through the play offs.
Claude Gnakpa - 25 year old, 6ft French Defender. Started his career playing in France with Montpellier and played most of his career in France till
2007 when Paul Sturrock signed him at Swindon, he never made a 1st team appearance for Swindon and was given a trial by Darren Ferguson at Peterborough
and enjoyed 28 games before signing for Luton in August 2008.
Ian Roper - 31 year old, 6ft 3 Defender, Roper made 325 appearances for Walsall from 1995-2008 untill August 2008 when he fell out of favour at The Bescot
Stadium he was sold on to Luton Town where he has been solid and made a good impact on Luton's defencesive line.
Michael Spillane - 19 year old, 6ft 2 Irish Defender currently on loan from Norwich City. Spillane has been sent out on loan from the Carrow Road outfit
for a season long loan with Luton Town. A U19 Irish International Spillane is highly rated at Norwich and has made a couple of first team appearances
for Norwich and is certainly one for the future.
Jake Howells - 20 year old, 5ft 11 Defender. Howells was a product of the Luton Town youth set up and has recently broken into the first team making
7 appearances in his first proffesional season with The Hatters.
Keith Keane - 22 year old, Midfielder. Keane was another product of Luton's youth set up and made his debut in 2003 aged just 16 years of age. Since
then he has made 103 appearances for Luton and scored 4 goals. Keith Keane was born in Luton but due to having Irish family is a regular for the
Repbulic of Ireland U21's.
Garreth O'Connor - 30 year old, Irish Midfielder. Started his career out in Ireland playing for Shamrock Rovers in 1998 and played for Bohemians in 1999.
In 2000 he finally joined an English side signing for Bournemouth having a 5 year spell with them and in 2005 moved on a Bosman to Burnley where he wasn't
so lucky and returned to Bournemouth in 2007 on loan. He was later released by Burnley and given a trial in October 2008 by Luton and made 3 appearances
since joining.
Kevin Nicholls - 29 year old, Midfielder. Started his playing career with Charlton Athletic making 12 appearances in 4 years before going out on loan
to Brighton. He then moved to Wigan Athletic in a move worth upto £650,000 where he made 28 appearances. He was later sold to Luton Town in 2001
for a deal worth upto £150,000 making 175 appearances and scoring 30 goals. He then signed for Leeds United in 2006 for £700,000 and in his first training
he damaged his knee and was out for 3 months. After becoming a bit of a hate figure at leeds he left to join Preston North End in a £750,000 deal. He
played 18 games last season for them and after having his contract terminated by mutual consent was able to rejoin Luton Town where he hopes to help them
stay up.
Asa Hall - 21 year old, Midfielder. Started his career with Wolves and later joined the other Midlands club Birmingham where he spent most of his time with
them out on loan. Spells with Boston United, Ashford Town and Shrewsbury Town led to him not being offered another contract with Birmingham. He was
snapped up by Luton in August 2008 and has played 14 games and scored 3 times.
Chris Martin - 20 year old, Striker currently on loan from Norwich City. Started his career with the canaries and has made 25 appearances for them
since 2006 scored 4 goals. He was sent out on loan at the start of this season to Luton Town on a season long loan and has made 16 appearances and
scored 2 goals since joining Luton. Martin is known for his pub brawls that have had him banned from several pubs in Beccles, Bungay and Southwold
for continuous brawls.
Paul McVeigh - 30 year old, Irish Striker. Highly experienced striker who started with Tottenham in 1996 and in a 4 year stint played just 3 games and
scored 1 goal. He later signed for Norwich in 2000 playing 215 games and scoring 36 goals. He ended a 7 year stay at Carrow Road with a short loan at
Burnley and was later sold to Luton Town where he has made 32 appearances and scored 1 goal. He is a Former Northern Ireland international.
Ricey's Ones To Watch:
Conrad Logan - An exceptional young talent who was excellent in his loan spell at Stockport County last season. So we can expect some exceptional
saves from the young keeper.
Keith Keane - Luton's youth product who is a very solid defensive midfielder plays a Christophe style role for Luton and will be out to stop the
likes of Walker/Revell from getting into Luton's final third.
Chris Martin - Bit of a hot head and will be out to wind up Alan McCormack and although he doesn't have the best of scoring records will without
a doubt be a threat to the likes of Clarke and Barrett.
Kevin Nicholls - Highly rated midfielder who has been a great player at all the clubs he has played for. His injury record has prevented him from
being a bigger asset at clubs. So he will be out to prove himself and cause a cup upset by knocking out The Shrimpers.
And there we have it Ricey's first ever FA Cup Pre match report. We have a tough game against Luton and out form against them is not brilliant
and luckily they have Sam Parkin and Dean Morgan out on loan. Two of their better players and we all know about ex players scoring against us.
I hope to see a nice crowd at Roots Hall and lets check out this new lad from West Ham so if you haven't already got your ticket, I expect you
lot to be there.
P.S - Don't forget to check out Mick's Ref Watch to see who will be the man in black for this game. http://www.shrimperzone.com/vb/showthread.php?t=46115
Kind Regards
Matthew (Ricey)
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