Charlton Athletic vs Luton Town FC (13th Apr 2019)

CHARLTON ATHLETIC 3 LUTON TOWN 1

Hatters' record-breaking unbeaten run ends at six months and 28 matches

The Hatters' club record unbeaten league run came to an end in the 29th match at Charlton this afternoon, six months after the table-topping Town side last tasted defeat in Sky Bet League One.

Harry Cornick gave the Town a 15th-minute lead, but a Lyle Taylor brace and one from Igor Vetokele kept in-form Charlton's own bid for automatic promotion to the Championship alive with a 3-1 victory.

The defeat also meant the Town's remarkable run of not being beaten having taken the lead in a match came to to an end after 76 matches dating back to November 2016 when Portsmouth came from behind to win at Kenilworth Road.

Manager Mick Harford made two enforced changes to his starting XI for this afternoon’s Sky Bet League One game at Charlton Athletic.

The changes were required, with top scorer James Collins serving a one-match suspension and Kazenga LuaLua missing out through injury.

As a result, striker Harry Cornick returned to the team from kick-off for the first time in 2019, while George Moncur also started after coming on as a substitute in last week’s 2-2 draw with Blackpool.

That meant James Shea was in goal, behind a back four of Jack Stacey, Matty Pearson, Sonny Bradley and James Justin. Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu was in the midfield holding role, with Andrew Shinnie and Luke Berry either side of him, Moncur at the tip of the diamond and Cornick and Elliot Lee up front.

Making their first appearances on the substitutes’ bench, as the Town look to make it 29 league games without defeat, are on-loan Brighton striker Aaron Connolly and youth team defender Corey Panter.

The Town settled quickly and produced the best move of the opening exchanges when Lee, Shinnie, Moncur and Berry combined to play the ball from a Stacey throw-in on the right out to opposite full-back Justin, whose low cross from the left was hacked clear by Naby Sarr.

We didn’t have to wait long for the breakthrough, and it was Cornick who got it on the quarter-of-an-hour mark with an emphatic right-footed finish after Mpanzu, driving forward from midfield, bided his time and slipped him in to the right edge of the penalty area.

Cornick’s bullet into the top corner gave home keeper Dillon Phillips no chance, and Moncur almost doubled the advantage with a curling shot aimed for the same spot, but Phillips flew across his line to tip it behind.

Lee went close a couple of times more, before the Addicks came within a lick of paint of drawing level on 28 minutes as Igor Vetokele took advantage of a slip from Pearson on halfway and broke down the left, finding Lyle Taylor in the box, but the striker’s shot rattled the crossbar.

In an end-to-end encounter, the Town were playing some liquid football and after Berry played Cornick again on the right of the Charlton penalty area, it took another good save from Phillips to keep out his skimming cross via a deflection off Sarr.

Phillips quickly launched the ball upfield and Vetokele was onto it in a flash, getting the wrong side of the Town defence and getting his shot away before Shea upended him two yards outside the penalty area.

Referee Gavin Ward showed Shea a yellow card, as the home crowd screamed for red, but with two covering defenders and the ball well off the pitch, it was the right decision – in particularly for anyone of a Hatters persuasion!

The Town continued to play the better football and Moncur sent another low shot in straight at Phillips from 20 yards.

Then, in first-half added time, after some terrific pressing by Cornick and Lee in the Charlton penalty area, Berry collected a loose pass from keeper Phillips and triggered another move down the left that ended with Justin whipping a beautiful right-foot curler that went just millimetres past the far post, before Mpanzu fired high over the bar from 25 yards just before the whistle.

The Hatters survived a penalty shout soon into the second half when Jonny Williams went down under a challenge from Stacey, but referee Ward waved the appeals away.

Not so in the 53rd minute, however, when the official pointed to spot as Taylor went down in front of Bradley as the Addicks looked to work the ball in from the right. The Charlton top scorer sent his former AFC Wimbledon team-mate Shea the wrong way from 12 yards to level the scores.

The Hatters were having to weather a home storm, and Vetokele went agonisingly close to giving his side the lead on the hour when his glancing header from Joe Aribo’s cross went just wide of the far post.

Harford brought Connolly on for his professional debut in the 69th minute, but within a minute the hosts were level, and it was Vetokele who tucked a neat finish past Shea after Krystian Bielik drove from his deep lying midfield role and played the striker into the box.

Two minutes later it was 3-1 to Charlton as Vetokele crossed from the left and Taylor steered home his second of the afternoon from inside the six-yard box.

Williams was soon trying his luck from 30 yards, with his shot deflected behind for a corner as Harford prepared to bring on Jason Cummings and captain Alan Sheehan in place of Lee and Berry.

The Hatters were reduced to ten men with a couple of minutes of normal time remaining when Shinnie was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Williams.

The Town couldn't find a way back, but received a terrific reception from the 3,144 travelling support in the Jimmy Seed Stand as Hatters fans recognised their achievements over the past half a year.

On to Accrington next Saturday!

TOWN: Shea, Stacey, Pearson, Bradley ©, Justin, Mpanzu, Shinnie, Berry (Sheehan 81), Moncur, Lee (Cummings 81), Cornick (Connolly 69). Subs: Baptiste, Thorne, Panter, Isted.

Goals: Cornick 15

Yellows: Shinnie, Shea, Berry, Sheehan

Red: Shinnie

CHARLTON: Phillips, Bielik (Pratley 86), Bauer, Taylor, Vetokele (Lapslie 77), Purrington, Aribo, Solly ©, Williams (Dijksteel 90+1), Sarr, Cullen. Subs: Maxwell (GK), Pearce, Parker, Reeves

Goals: Taylor (pen) 53, 72, Vetokele 70

Yellows: Taylor, Vetokele

REFEREE: Gavin Ward

ATT: 16,449 (3,144 Hatters)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy-Z9-h7Mt4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jllCqWHm-ao

Record-breaking unbeaten run comes to an end as Charlton sink Hatters

All good things come to an end an League One leaders Luton lost for the first time in 29 third-tier matches after a devastating second half comeback from Charlton.

A penalty that Hatters boss Mick Harford labelled a game-changing “disgrace” cancelled out Harry Cornick’s opener before two goals in as many minutes from the Lyle Taylor and Igor Vetokele-inspired Londoners consigned Town to defeat, six months to the day of their last in the league.

Even before Andrew Shinnie was given his marching orders late on, it was a humbling experience that also ended an incredible 76-game all-competition streak of going unbeaten after taking the lead.

The scene had been set for match number 77 when Cornick pinged Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s through-ball into the top corner on 15 minutes, in his first start since December 29.

And they had other chances in the first half. Namely George Moncur, Town’s only other line-up change, almost found the same spot, but for the acrobatics of Dillon Phillips.

Luton were effective on the counter in the first half, though not without their nervous moments at the other end, as Charlton pressed them like few other teams had managed during their record-breaking run.

Keeper James Shea was fortunate to only see yellow after clattering into a shooting Vetokele outside of the box, though the covering Sonny Bradley was likely the reason for the caution instead of a dismissal.

And his goal remained charmed, for a time, when Matty Pearson slipped, not for the first time in the contest, and Taylor hit the bar when he should’ve scored.

If they were warnings from both home strikers, Luton failed to heed them.

Town couldn’t cope with Charlton’s intensity after the interval and while the hosts were furious at not being awarded a penalty when Jonny Williams went to ground in a challenge with

Jack Stacey, referee Gavin Ward gave them a gift soon after. Taylor backed into Bradley in the 54th minute, hit the deck and waited for the whistle, which duly blew. Luton players protested to no avail as Taylor nonchalantly converted from 12 yards and Addicks boss Lee Bowyer even admitted afterwards that the decision was “soft”.

Town needed to calm the game down at that point but, with The Valley rocking, they could barely get out of their own half.

Charlton, to their credit, also ruthlessly punished Luton’s mistakes and Vetokele was the beneficiary, in the 72nd minute, of Town losing possession, sliding the ball beyond an out-rushing Shea.

But any hopes of a Hatters rescue act, like the previous game against Blackpool, were quickly decimated two minutes later when Moncur was caught out in his own half and Vetokele put the ball on a plate for Taylor, who gobbled up the cross.

Town didn’t fashion a chance of note in response and, to make matters worse, Shinnie was given his marching orders two minutes from time for a second bookable offence, capping off an unfamiliarly sobering afternoon.

Yet, five points clear of Barnsley in second with just four games still to go, Luton remain firmly in pole position to claim back-to-back promotions for the first time in the club’s history.

Match facts

Charlton: Phillips, Bielik (Pratley, 88), Bauer, Taylor, Vetokele (Lapslie, 76), Purrington, Arizona, Solly, Williams (Dijksteel, 90), Starr, Cullen Subs not used: Maxwell, Pearce, George, Reeves, Parker

Luton: Shea, Justin, Bradley, Pearson, Stacey, Berry (Sheehan, 81), Lee (Cummings, 81), Shinnie, Cornick (Connolly, 68), Mpanzu, Moncur Subs not used: Baptiste, Thorne, Isted, Panter

Referee: Gavin Ward Attendance: 16,449 (3,144)

Harford** claims crucial penalty decision in Charlton defeat was 'a disgrace'**

Luton boss Mick Harford slammed a crucial penalty decision as a 'disgrace' as it kick-started Charlton’s comeback against his table-toppers who lost for the first time in 29 Sky Bet League One matches.

Harry Cornick had put Town in front after 15 minutes but early in the second half the Addicks were awarded a spot-kick when Lyle Taylor went to ground without much contact from Sonny Bradley.

The striker converted the penalty and then scored the third, two minutes after Igor Vetokele had made it 2-1.

It was Town’s first defeat in exactly six months and Harford said of referee Gavin Ward’s decision for the equaliser: “The penalty is an absolute disgrace in terms of what has been given, in terms of the contact that was in the box. In my opinion it changed the face of the game.

“The penalty was never a penalty. It’s easy for me to sit here and say that bit it was a big mistake. The two other goals were just errors from us.”

Charlton thought they should have had a penalty moments earlier, when Jonny Williams was challenged by Jack Stacey and comparing the two, Harford said: “I don’t know whether he evened it up at all. I’ve got no idea how that referee works but I just thought, without a shred of a doubt, that he made a wrong decision. I’m allowed to say that, surely?”

Town were comfortably second best after half time and Harford, who was awarded the league one manager of the month award in the week, said: “It was chalk and cheese in the first half and second half.

"It was the best and worst I’ve seen of us this season. The second half was probably the worst performance in terms of in possession.”

It was also Harford’s first defeat in his second spell as Town manager, 10 years to the day that he was in charge when Luton were relegated out of the Football League.

This result won’t feel anywhere near as desperate as that day, as the Hatters are still top of league one and five points clear with four games to go off the back of a record-breaking 28-game unbeaten streak.

But the Hatters chief said: “Overall we’re very disappointed but the players have been on a magnificent run. I can’t sit here and berate them or criticise them because they’re a fantastic bunch and they’ll bounce back, 100 per cent.”