Accrington Stanley vs Luton Town FC (8th Aug 2015)

PUBLISHED 8th August 2015 ACCRINGTON STANLEY 1-1 LUTON TOWN

The Hatters grabbed a late equaliser at The Wham Stadium this evening after the ball was deflected into the net by Jonathan Smith following a Craig Mackail Smith attempt on goal.

Earlier in the game, the defender had conceded the penalty which gave Stanley the advantage from the spot.

John Still disappointed to have conceded the penalty.

Luton Town opened their 15/16 campaign with the long trip up the M6 to Accrington Stanley’s Wham Stadium this afternoon. Lining up in their new away strip; a white shirt with orange sleeves, Still named a strong starting XI featuring five of his new signings from the summer.

The team lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Justham in goal, Cuthbert, McNulty, Griffiths and Wilkinson at the back, a midfield of Green, Smith, Doyle and McCourt with McQuoid and Mackail Smith up front.

The first half was a largely cagey affair with few clear-cut chances for either side.

Within the first few minutes Accrington Stanley were awarded their first free kick, which was dealt with easily enough by Jonathan Smith on his 101st appearance in a Luton shirt.

On 5 minutes Mingoia made a rush into the Luton box to put pressure on Justham – but the keeper gathered and cleared long upfield to Mackail Smith, who was ruled to be offside just as he tried a cheeky chip at the other end.

The first corner of the match came on 11 minutes when Mingoia sneaked in round the back of Griffiths, who then tracked back and made the tackle putting the ball out of play. The resulting set-piece was fired into the area, and headed wide by Davis for the home team.

Shortly afterwards, Craig Mackail Smith sent a long-range effort over the bar from 30 yards.

Other noteable moments of the half for Luton came from a low, hard strike from Jonathan Smith on 30 minutes, smothered by 6’ 9” keeper Mooney in the Accrington goal, and Paddy McCourt making a run through the Accrington midfield to set up Green out wide. His cross to Mackail Smith was eventually deflected out for Luton’s 1st Corner of the match in the 40th minute. Danny Green who had a lively first half delivers but the Accrington defence deal with it efficiently.

No injuries, substitutions or bookings during the first half then, and not a great deal of goalmouth action for either side.

The second half started more brightly from an action point of view. Stanley looked the livelier of the two teams out of the blocks.

Accrington defender Matt Crooks was booked for an incursion on 51 minutes, and from the free kick Danny Green took a dangerous looking run into the Accrington area on 53 minutes. Craig Mackail Smith received the ball, but his shot came to nothing.

It wasn’t until the 60th minute that the deadlock was broken as Jonathan Smith makes a silly challenge in the box. Windass, momentarily lost his marker in the corner of the penalty by the by line and Jonathan Smith rashly dived in with a reckless challenge. The penalty decision was given with little complaint from the Luton side.

Windass took the spot kick for Accrington, and despite Elliot Justham diving the right way, the ball found its way into the corner of the Luton Goal. 1 – 0 Stanley.

The break in play gave John Still an opportunity to make his first change of the game with Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu coming on for Paddy McCourt. Then a few minutes later a second Luton change, with Paul Benson replacing Josh McQuoid.

The change looked to be a positive one, when on 66 minutes, Mackail Smith put in a great pass to Pelly Ruddock, who powers in on the pass, but his shot was blocked on the edge of the area

Luton’s third and final change on 77 minutes saw Danny Green replaced by Jack Marriott, and within moments of Marriott joining the action he looked a threat. With the added option of the long ball into Benson, Luton began to look like there might still be a way back into the game after long periods in the second half under threat from Stanley. On 80 minutes, Marriott, on the edge of the box, managed to thread the ball through to Ruddock but his cross was cleared.

Stanley continued to threaten though, with Mingoia, and Barry linking up well on the left and Gornell stalking Justham’s box looking for the second Accrington goal.

Then, finally, as the warm August sun looked to have wilted Luton’s chances of a goal of their own, Mackail-Smith fired an acrobatic effort into the box. The ball took a deflection off the chest of Jonathan Smith and landed in the home net for Luton’s equaliser.

Talking to lutontown.co.uk after the match, John Still said “Were we good? No. Were we bad? No. We were ordinary. It was disappointing to have to come from 1-0 down. We always want to attack, we always want to score and we always want to win. We tried to win, but gave ourselves a bit too much to do from 1-0 down.”

The Hatters take on Bristol City at home in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday evening, then look forward to the first home game of the new season against Oxford United.

Attendance 2359, with 1175 travelling fans.

Luton: Justham, Smith, McNulty, Cuthbert, Green, Griffiths, McCourt, Mackail-Smith, McQuoid, Doyle, Wilkinson

Luton Subs: Tyler, Potts, McGeehan, Benson, Marriott, Ruddock Mpanzu, Guttridge

Accrington Stanley: Mooney, Buxton, Winnard, Davies, Mingoia, Windass, Gornell, McConville, Pearson, Crooks, Conneely

Accrington Subs: Etheridge, Barry, Procter, Bruna, Morgan, Kee, Wright

http://www.lutontown.co.uk/news/article/accrington-1-1-luton-match-report-2604544.aspx

http://www.lutontown.co.uk/news/article/accrington-1-1-luton-gallery-2603373.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8QJduE_24Y - Goals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54rlz6yrWic - John Still

Smith’s redemption as he rescues Hatters a late, late point

Midfielder Jonathan Smith went from zero to hero as he rescued an injury time point for Hatters in their opening game at Accrington Stanley this afternoon.

It was Smith who had been the culprit on the hour mark, needlessly bringing down Josh Windass in the area, for the midfielder to convert the resulting penalty.

However, with seconds left, Smith then deflected in Craig Mackail-Smith’s volley to earn Hatters a draw they hadn’t completely deserved after what was a scratchy display at times.

Town boss John Still named five debutantes in his starting line-up as Craig Mackail-Smith began upfront alongside Josh McQuoid, with Danny Green and Paddy McCourt on the flanks and Scott Cuthbert preferred to Stephen O’Donnell at right back

However, as is always the case, it will take time for the new sigings to fully bed in to the league campaign, with Still admitting afterwards, his team are notoriously slow starters.

A quiet opening saw Town occasionally show flashes of intent whenever Green and McCourt turned to face their opponents.

The hosts created the first meaningful chance on 22 minutes though as Josh Windass found some space to tee up Terry Gornell, with the striker scuffing straight at Elliot Justham.

Hatters then immediately had their best opening, as Mackail-Smith backed into his defender, before laying the ball into the onrushing Smith whose well-struck shot was snaffled by Jason Mooney.

As neither side could fully gain the ascendancy, it was Accrington, who improved towards the end of the half, impressive midfielder Matt Crooks nodding tamely wide when well placed.

Hatters ended the first period on the front foot though, Nathan Doyle advancing from his midfield role to skim wide from 20 yards.

In the second period, Luke Wilkinson rose highest to head over at the back post from Green’s deep free kick, before full back Scott Griffiths made a crucial intervention at the other end from Windass’s cut back.

Green then rounded his man impishly after being picked out by Wilkinson’s glorious crossfield pass, finding Mackail-Smith whose blast was blocked.

The game finally began to open up, with Sean McConville scooping over the top, while Hatters looked to have finally gained a semblance of ascendancy, winning a host of corners with Griffiths and Mackail-Smiths seeing efforts deflected.

However, a clearance then saw Stanley launch a counter attack, as Windass made his way into the area, only to be felled by a rash diving challenge from Smith.

Windass dusted himself down to arrow in the bottom corner despite Justham going the right way, as Still started to ring the changes, with McCourt replaced by Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu.

Paul Benson came on for McQuoid and immediately looked to link up with Mackail-Smith, in a partnership forged at Dagenham earlier in their careers, with Jack Marriott taking Green’s place.

With Luton leaving gaps in midfield, Accrington looked to be finishing stronger, a lovely move seeing Crooks’ downward header easy for Justham

The keeper then had to be alert to parry Anthony Barry’s low free kick, while Piero Mingoia might have settled the fixture, turning McNulty but side-footing straight at Justham.

However, Marriott, Benson and Ruddock Mpanzu’s introductions all pepped up Luton’s attack in the closing stages, with Marriot in particular looking a tricky proposition for the hosts defence.

With time running out, the visitors were level as a long throw was flicked on and Mackail-Smith’s volley hammered off Smith’s chest to beat the wrong-footed Jason Mooney.

Town could have somehow won it too as Marriot’s drive was parried by Mooney, with Benson’s follow up hitting Mackail-Smith and rebounding to safety.

Accrington: Jason Mooney, Adam Buxton (Joe Wright 88), Dean Winnard, Tom Davies, Piero Mingoia, Josh Windass (Anthony Barry 73), Terry Gornell, Sean McConville (Billy Kee 63), Matty Pearson, Matt Crooks, Seamus Conneely.

Subs not used: Ross Etheridge, Andrew Procter, Gerardo Bruna, Adam Morgan.

Hatters: Elliot Justham, Scott Cuthbert, Scott Griffiths, Steve McNulty, Luke Wilkinson, Danny Green (Jack Marriott 75), Jonathan Smith, Nathan Doyle, Paddy McCourt (Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu 60), Josh McQuoid (Paul Benson 65), Craig Mackail-Smith.

Subs not used: Mark Tyler, Dan Potts, Cameron McGeehan, Luke Guttridge.

Referee: Geoff Eltringham.

Bookings: Crooks 50.

Attendance: 2,359 (1,176 Luton) Actually 1175

Still bemused by Smith’s lack of discipline

Hatters boss John Still was left baffled by midfielder Jonathan Smith’s lack of discipline as he conceded a needless penalty against Accrington Stanley in yesterday’s League Two opener.

With an hour gone, Smith dived in with a rash challenge on Josh Windass, to give the hosts a clear-cut spot kick, easily converted by Windass himself.

A bemused Still said afterwards: “I can’t understand Smudge. The thing we talk about all the time, don’t go on your backside in the box, stand up, he’s no need.

“The fella’s wide, if he crosses it and someone scores that’s not his fault, that’s someone-else’s fault.

“One of my bugbears in particular during the first six to eight, maybe nine games of the season, as I always say it takes that long to sort it out, is you’ve got to dig in and make no mistakes and get as many points as you can.

“If a good move happens and someone scores a goal, you say okay, that’s fair play, but to contribute to that.

“Jonathan Smith is the most hardest working, most committed player you can get and I love him for it, but hes got to have discipline, games are won and lost on small margins.

“We all mistakes, but if you make errors that are avoidable, you’re not going to help yourself.

“We’ve got very good players, but we can’t give away goals and we did.”

With Town chasing the game in the closing stages, they finally earned a point when Smith was stationed in the right place to fortunately deflect Craig Mackail-Smith’s goalbound shot into the net during injury-time.

Still added: “He didn’t know anything about it, it was a great strike from Craig and we said in the week, the first game away from home, we need to be solid, strong, determined, give nothing away, because the rest will follow.

“I think we had a little panic up in our game as we didn’t really feel we’d go behind. We knew that if we kept getting the ball forward into people in and around the box we could cause them some problems.

“We took a little bit of a gamble, letting them have a bit of the midfield and leaving people up, fortunately it paid off.

“What do I think of the 90 minutes? We can play better than that, but away from home, first game of the season would I be happy to take a point?

“I don’t know if I’d be happy, but I wouldn’t be that disappointed.”

Smith holds his hands up over ‘sloppy’ challenge

Hatters midfielder Jonathan Smith held his hands up after gifting Accrington Stanley their opening goal during yesterday’s 1-1 draw at the Wham Stadium.

The 28-year-old made a reckless challenge on midfielder Josh Windass in the area, leaving referee Geoff Eltringham with little option but point to the spot.

Windass had little trouble in beating Elliot Justham with the resulting penalty as Smith said: “I definitely shouldn’t have made the challenge, it was sloppy from me, I should know better.

“In a midfield area, I’d go for that, but the in area you shouldn’t do it, and I’ll learn from it that’s for sure.

“It was a bit of a roller coaster for the first game of the season, we needed to get something out of the game, but personally I’m disappointed I let the team down for the first goal, but should no better than to dive in there.”

After the error, Nathan Doyle was one of the first over to gee up his team-mate, something Smith appreciated, although he admitted he had already turned his thoughts to helping Luton find a way back into the game.

He continued: “Doyley, Macca (Steve McNulty) all rallied round me. Doyle’s a perfect person to play with for me, because we get on on and off the pitch and straight away he’s saying Smudge keep going and that’s superb for me.

“A few years ago it might have affected me, but I’ve worked hard on the mental side of the game, straight away it had gone out my head.

“A few of the lads were saying forget about it and I already had. It’s all about putting it out of your mind, if you let it dwell on you, then you might as well come off, the gaffer might as well take me off.

“I was disappointed in myself, but I tried to put it out of my mind and give 100 per cent for the team and try and get something back.”

In the end, it was Smith who rescued a point for the Hatters in injury time, deflecting Craig Mackail-Smith’s volley past Jason Mooney, although he revealed he knew little or nothing about it.

He added: “It was just a bit of luck. It hit me to be fair and knowing my luck, it would have hit me and gone over the bar. I’m just relieved that it went in.

“I’m not fussed who scores, I’m not here to be taking the glory, I’m just here to get results. My job isn’t to be scoring loads of goals, my job is to do better for the first goal.”