Luton Town FC vs Gillingham (29th Aug 2023)

Report | Town 3-2 Gillingham

Town 3 [Brown 2, Doughty 28, Woodrow 66]

Gillingham 2 [Clarke 55, Nichols 88]

In their first match at Kenilworth Road this season, the Hatters booked their place in the third round of the Carabao Cup with a win over League Two Gillingham.

Three really well-taken goals from Jacob Brown - his first for the club - Alfie Doughty - with an absolute beauty - and Cauley Woodrow had the Hatters in command.

At 2-0 and 3-1 the Gills rallied to make life uncomfortable for the Hatters but the Town were able to secure their place in the Wednesday's third round draw.

The Hatters started showing seven changes to the side that lost at Chelsea on Friday, with a debut in goal for Tim Krul and first starts for Brown and Cheidozie Ogbene.

And the Town began with real gusto and were almost ahead inside 60 seconds when Doughty's shot from close range was blocked.

But the Hatters' did not have long to wait for the opener when, with one minute and 37 seconds on the clock, Brown finished brilliantly inside the area after taking Luke Berry's knock-down - staking a claim for the fastest goal scored by a Town home debutant.

Brown continued to be a menace to the Gills' backline but his finish was relegated to second best when Doughty doubled the lead on 28 minutes. Last season the wing-back won the goal of the season award and he has an early contender for this season's prize with the sweetest of left-foot strikes. Receiving the ball back from Berry following a short free-kick, Doughty sent a stunning, curling shot into the top, top corner to make it 2-0.

The hosts, who had started the season winning five out of six in all competitions, came out all guns blazing in the second period and nine minutes after the restart they halved the deficit when Jayden Clarke slotted past Krul.

With their tails up there was a danger the Hatters could have been punished and Krul had to be wary to keep out a shot from Ashley Nasedan moments later.

But any fears of a Gills leveller were extinguished on 66 minutes when Woodrow arrowed an unerring finishing high into the net from 12 yards to restore the Town's two-goal cushion.

With 25 minutes left it looked as though the Town were comfortable, but Gillingham forced a grandstand finish with two minutes remaining when substitute Tom Nichols headed beyond Krul.

The visitors sensed a last-gasp equaliser - which would have sent the tie to penalties. Krul needed to be alert to stop efforts from Scott Malone and Jonny Williams and keep the Gills at bay.

With the visitors pushing as time ticked down, the Hatters almost added extra gloss in the dying moments of injury time with Ross Barkley forcing a save from Glenn Morris and Woodow's follow-up blocked but it mattered not at the Town are in the hat for round three.

Next up. The Premier League comes to Kenilworth Road. West Ham are in town. Be there.

Town: Krul; Doughty, Giles (sub Kabore 60), Andersen, Lockyer, Bell; Mpanzu, Berry (sub Barkley 60), Woodrow; Brown (sub Adebayo 81), Ogbene (sub Nakamba 69).

Subs not used: Shea, Morris, Chong, Burke, Johnson.

Attendance: 9,468, including 1,058 supporting the Gills.

Rob on Gillingham triumph

Town boss Rob Edwards speaks to our cameras after the 3-2 win over Gillingham secured a place in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

"I'm very happy tonight with what I saw," said the boss. "Tonight we could only win by winning. The expectancy was on us to win and we did.

"I've been stressing that to the players all week. It was always going to be tricky. Gillingham have started well in the league and came here with the freedom.

"I was pleased with the start we made and we scored two great goals. We ended the first half in complete control and it should have been more.

"They pegged us back at 2-1, which certainly lifted them for a spell; we had to weather a storm and stand up to that. The third goal settled us but it got nervy again towards the end but overall I was pleased."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0SY3AQpxFc – Match highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtyeSvsHRsk – Rob Edwards post match interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCApk6Oz3Jc – Game Day unmasked

Doughty scores a stunner as Luton make hard work of Gills victory

Carabao Cup, second round: Luton Town 3 Gillingham 2

Luton made hard work of seeing off League Two Gillingham in the Carabao Cup as they edged their way through their second round tie at Kenilworth Roathis evening.

Two goals to the good at half time, the Hatters conceded twice in the second half as what had looked like a comfortable victory turned into the hosts hanging on for their place in the third round through five minutes of stoppage time.

Town boss Rob Edwards made seven changes from the side who had gone down to a 3-0 defeat at Chelsea in the Premier League on Friday evening, Tim Krul in for his debut, while there was a first start for Chiedozie Ogbene too.

Luton got off to the perfect start as with just 60 seconds on the clock, Alfie Doughty collected a raking crossfield pass at the back post, his fierce blast deflected behind.

Gills couldn't clear their lines from the corner, as Luke Berry found Jacob Brown, who produced a finish of unerring quality into the bottom corner to net his first goal for the club.

The ex-Stoke forward had another crack on seven minutes, from range this time, but couldn't repeat the accuracy of his earlier attempt, with Gills only real opening seeing Jayden Clarke send a hopeful drive over from range.

Midway through the half, Luton tried for a second, Berry doggedly going through the middle but falling back, his shot was easy for Morris to gather.

A second did arrive with 28 minutes on the clock though, a true thunderbolt from the boot of Doughty.

The wingback, who has been left out of the Premier League XI so far this term, rolled a free kick some 30 yards from goal to Berry, who controlled it dead, allowing Doughty to simply hammer a truly wonderful curving left-footed into the top corner.

Boss Edwards made one change at the break, bringing on Reece Burke for Lockyer in what looked like a pre-planned alteration.

Gills looked to pull one back, Max Clark's attempt from range straight at Krul, but they did halve the deficit on 55 minutes, Clarke escaping on the left and side-stepped an attempted saving tackle to coolly lift the ball over the Dutch stopper.

Gills should have levelled, as a long ball saw Amari'i Bell caught out badly, Ashley Nadesan able to get clean through on Krul, the keeper managing to save with his trailing leg.

The corner wasn't dealt with either by Luton as the ball dropped to Macauley Bonne just eight yards from goal, but he lent back to sky over the top.

Edwards responded with two changes, Ross Barkley and Issa Kabore on for Ryan Giles and the cautioned Berry, as Doughty switched to his preferred left wing back role.

The alterations worked instantly, Luton having a pressure relieving third goal when a ball forward saw a Gills header drop at the feet of Woodrow and with Morris slightly off his line, he powered his effort over the backpedalling keeper for a terrific goal on 66 minutes.

Woodrow got it all wrong going for his second after Barkley showed his pinpoint passing range, but the Gills kept going and to their credit, made it 3-2 with two minute to go, sub Tom Nichols's stooping header beating the best efforts of Krul.

The keeper did deny Scott Malone as the game went into injury time, before his punch was seized upon by Jonny Williams, Krul able to dive across and fingertip behind in stoppage time.

Town should have sealed a fourth even later, a four on one break ending up with Barkley's attempt beaten away, but the Hatters held on to go into tomorrow night's third round draw.

Hatters: Tim Krul, Alfie Doughty, Mads Andersen, Tom Lockyer (C Reece Burke 46), Amari'i Bell, Ryan Giles (Issa Kabore 60) Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Luke Berry (Ross Barkley 60), Cauley Woodrow, Jacob Brown (Elijah Adebayo 81), Chiedozie Ogbene (Marvelous Nakamba 69).

Subs not used: James Shea, Carlton Morris, Tahith Chong, Joe Johnson.

Gills: Glenn Morris, Cheye Alexander, Max Clark (Scott Malone 72), Conor Masterson, Max Ehmer (C), Ashley Nadesan (Jonny Williams 73), Robbie McKenzie, Jayden Clarke (Ronald Sithole 87), Shadrach Ogie, Timothy Dieng (Shaun Williamsn 73), Macauley Bonne (Tom Nichols 72).

Subs not used: Jake Turner, Ike Orji, Joe Gbode, Josh Chambers.

Referee: Jeremy Simpson.

Booked: Berry 34, Dieng 38.

Attendance: 9,469 (1,056 Gills).

Luton chief happy to get that 'winning feeling' back ahead of Hammers clash

Town boss knew it was crucial to pick up Carabao Cup victory over Gillingham

Luton boss Rob Edwards highlighted the importance of getting that ‘winning feeling’ back amongst the Town players with a 3-2 Carabao Cup triumph over Gillingham at Kenilworth Road last night.

The Hatters had started the Premier League season with back-to-back defeats, going down 4-1 at Brighton & Hove Albion on the opening day and then losing 3-0 to Chelsea, although did put up more than decent fights in both matches.

With West Ham United heading to Kenilworth Road on Friday night, Edwards wanted his side to go into that contest against the high-flying Hammers with a victory under their belt, and despite making heavy weather of it in the second period, goals from Jacob Brown, Alfie Doughty and Cauley Woodrow saw them through to tonight’s third round draw.

Speaking afterwards, Edwards said: “We talked a lot about it, we wanted to get that winning feeling back.

"Alright it’s been a tough start, a couple of games, we’ve not won but tonight was important that we did to go into Friday with some real momentum.

"We know now it will help, it will help with that feeling around the place and tonight a lot of people in football, we’ve all seen it before, newly promoted team, they're going to make quite a lot of changes, Gillingham have started well in the league, it was a potential banana skin there.

"So I think it was overall really positive to come out with a win as the end result was important.

“We could only win by winning the game.

"The expectancy was obviously on us, it's a little bit different to the last couple of games we've had, so overall very pleased.”

Edwards did make a host of alterations to his XI for the game, eight in fact, giving a debut to keeper Tim Krul, with Brown and Chiedozie Ogbene both earning their first starts, while Mads Andersen, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Luke Berry, Doughty and Woodrow all came in too.

Although it meant Luton weren’t ever at their undoubted best, that was something that Edwards had always anticipated could happen, as he continued: “We had quite a lot of changes, tweaked the shape a little bit, and I liked a lot of what I saw.

“It was a really good start, I thought we built on it as well and controlled pretty much all of the first half.

“Going 2-0 up was great, an unbelievable goal from Alfie, we know he's got that in him, and we spoke at half time about the next goal.

"The next goal is going to be really important and the game can really hinge on that.

“They got it, they probably had five or 10 minutes then when we had to deal with that, play forward, run forward, direct play, set-pieces, but we still looked okay.

“Cauley's goal settled us down and I thought controlled it again until the very last couple of minutes.

"There's probably a reason if we lacked a bit of fluency or rhythm tonight, I was going into it thinking we might, but actually there was a lot of good things that I saw.

“Three brilliant goals, I just think when we’ve got that control, we just need to see it out a little bit better.”

Conceding so early on in the second period and then just before the final whistle was definitely a cause of frustration for Edwards though, as he added: “From the beginning, the onus is on us to go and win the game.

"They can play with a freedom and there’s an expectancy that we need to win and should win, I get that.

"Getting that goal back got their fans up, their fans were brilliant, and they probably had a 10 minute spell where we had to weather it.

"We made a couple of changes, got some control back I felt and we should have seen it out a little bit easier than what we did towards the end.”