Luton Town FC vs Nuneaton Town (25th Jan 2014)

Gray treble beats Boro

Town 3 Gray 50, 60, 77 Nuneaton 0

A second half hat-trick from Andre Gray saw the Town storm to victory in their first Skrill Premier game in three weeks. After a goalless first half Gray opened the scoring five minutes into the second period before a mini-storm saw the players taken off the field for 10 minutes by referee Adam Bromley.

After the restart the Town doubled their lead when Gray got his second, tapping home on the hour and, 10 minutes, later he netted his second hat-trick of the season when finishing with aplomb following Steve McNulty’s headed throughball.

Cambridge were held 3-3 at Dartford which meant the Town moved three points clear at the top of the table, and the result also saw the Hatters create a new club record of 20 games without defeat in the league.

Showing two changes to the side that last played in the league, with Cameron McGeehan and Ryan Inniss both given league debits, the Town showed signs of rustiness in an even first half that swung marginally in their favour once Luke Guttridge was moved inside to a central position having started on the right flank.

Mark Tyler had to deal with two routine efforts from distance in the first 16 minutes, once from Nuneaton’s leading goalscorer Louis Moult and the other from centre-forward Andy Brown.

As Guttridge moved inside, the Town began to get a stranglehold on proceedings, with the midfielder immediately fashioning a chance for Gray to thump wide.

The Town were beginning to dominate but failed to test James Belshaw, the Boro keeper, with McGeehan volleying over first-time following Jake Howells’ header across goal on 25 minutes, Guttridge dragging a shot wide on 34 minutes and Gray firing wide from an almost impossible angle a minute later.

Five minutes before the break the Hatters engineered their best move of the half when Danny Sleath, the Nuneaton defender, charged down a Scott Griffiths cross with Gray sniffing a goal. As half-time approach the deadlock remained when Paul Benson shot wide after taking Howells’ pass before James Walker curled a shot over the bar in the final moments of the first 45 minutes.

The second period began with claps of thunder and lightning in the distance as Kenilworth Road became shrouded in darkness. The half was only five minutes old when Benson flicked on a Ronnie Henry throw to release Gray in the box and the striker did the rest to arrow a low shot through the legs of Belshaw to open the scoring.

Almost immediately the heavens well and truly opened with the players quickly ushered off the pitch by the referee. 10 minutes later the rain had subsided but within another 10 minutes the Town doubled their lead when, moments after an Inniss header was hacked off the line, Griffiths teed up Gray to side-foot home his and the Hatters’ second and his 16th of the season.

Two was almost three on 63 minutes when Belshaw did brilliantly to claw out a shot from Howells following Henry’s right-wing cross before Nuneaton threatened for the first, and only, time of the half when Moult drove a shot over Tyler’s crossbar on 73 minutes.

Benson headed over a Robinson cross inside the six yard box with 15 minutes to go but two minutes later Gray grabbed his second matchball of the season when he raced onto McNulty’s defensive header and confidently dispatched past the advancing goalkeeper.

As news filtered through about Cambridge’s failure to beat Dartford the Town had the ball in the back of the net for a fourth time on 86 minutes but Howells’ effort was ruled out for offside after Belshaw had done well to keep out substitute Mark Cullen’s shot – and that was that.

Town: Tyler; Henry, Griffiths, McNulty, Inniss; Guttridge, Robinson, Howells (sub Martin 86), McGeehan; Benson (sub Cullen 79), Gray. Subs not used: Justham, Franks, Ferdinand.

Attendance: 7,310 (182 Nuneaton)

Boss' delight at 3-0 win after three-week break

John Still was happy his side took control of the controllables after the 3-0 win over Nuneaton Town moved the Town three points clear at the top of the table.

The manager wheeled out his customary phrase after hearing that promotion rivals Cambridge had drawn 3-3 at Dartford.

“Dartford haven’t done us a favour, they’ve done themselves a favour,” said Still, “We’ve done ourselves a favour, too.

“We can only do what we can do, we can’t influence what other teams do. Of course it’s nice to hear those [Cambridge’s] results, but all you can do is control the controllables and we did that. It’s a good day.”

Andre Gray’s electrifying second half hat-trick was the difference as the Hatters broke a new club record by extending their unbeaten league run to 20 matches.

It was also the Town’s first league fixture in three weeks and, after a goalless first half, Still was delighted with the way his side performed after the break.

“You never know what’s going to happen after a break like that,” said Still. “We took a while to get going in the first half.

“I said at half-time we needed to up the tempo and I thought we did that in the second half. Nuneaton were decent opposition so we knew we had to be up for it but, fortunately, we were able to score early in the second half and from that point on we looked comfortable.”

http://www.lutontown.co.uk/news/article/gallery-nuneaton-2501-1316026.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmg2aV4IZjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXfKSD60JwU

Gray hat-trick inspires Luton Town to make history

Skrill Premier: Luton Town 3 (0) Nuneaton Town 0 (0)

Hatters hotshot Andre Gray hit a hat-trick as he helped Luton to make history with a 3-0 victory over Nuneaton Town at Kenilworth Road this afternoon, writes Mark Wood.

Amid thunder and lightning and a 10-minute stoppage for safety reason, Town put in an electrifying second half performance as they netted three times to claim a hard-fought win.

The victory stretched leaders Luton’s unbeaten league run to a club record 20 games and sent Gray soaring to the top of the Skrill Premier goalscoring charts as his treble took him to 17 goals for the season.

And with nearest rivals Cambridge United only managing a 3-3 draw at Dartford, having led 2-0 at one point, Town stretched their lead at the top to three points, although the U’s do still have a game in hand.

Town finally got back into action in the league for the first time in three weeks, their last outing the goalless draw at Lincoln City on January 4.

Midfielder Alex Lawless missed out with an eye infection and, with loan man Joe Davis having returned to Port Vale, in came Crystal Palace loan man Ryan Inniss and Norwich City youngster Cameron McGeehan for his Hatters debut.

Hatters striker Paul Benson and boss John Still received their Skrill Premier player and manager month of the awards for December before kick-off as Town’s chief was afforded a massive round of applause from the home faithful.

After a slow start, which featured an early crunching tackle from McGeehan, it took nine minutes for either side to threaten as Boro’s leading scoring Louis Moult saw his shot from the edge of the area blocked.

Neither side was showing any real intent as the rain started to fall on an already tricky surface.

Boro were looking the busier side against a lacklustre Luton as Andy Brown’s deflected effort was easy for Mark Tyler on 16 minutes.

Jake Howells’ ball finally released Gray midway through the half, but Luke Guttridge couldn’t divert his cross goalwards.

Town gradually started to play some better stuff and finally went close on 25 minutes when Gray got free on the right and his deep cross was headed back across as McGeehan’s half-volley fizzed over the bar.

Strangely pedestrian Town were not playing with their usual verve as the visitors threatened again on 31 minutes, but Dave Hibbert’s flick header flashed wide.

Some good work in the midfield by Guttridge and Matt Robinson put Gray away on 35 minutes, but the striker’s instinct took over as he thrashed wide when he should have looked to cross.

More clever football from Town saw Howells find Scott Griffiths on the overlap five minutes before the break as Danny Sleath got an important foot in to clear behind.

Howells was enjoying more and more success down the left as his cross picked out Benson, but his shot on the turn went harmlessly over.

But in stoppage time it was Boro who threatened and Adam Walker probably should have done better as he lofted over from the edge of the box.

With thunder, lightning and heavy rain engulfing Kenilworth Road for the second half Town took the lead five minutes in. Gray raced on to Benson’s flick as he held off the covering defender before driving home under the body of James Belshaw, who should have done far better.

Moments later the heavens truly opened as torrential rain hammered down and referee A Bromley quickly whistled to temporarily halt the match as the players were whisked back into the changing rooms for their own protection.

After roughly a 10-minutes delay the teams were back out and Luton almost doubled their lead within seconds thanks to an error. Benson flicked on and Belshaw almost fumbled the ball into the path of the onrushing Howells, but just hung on.

Good covering by Steve McNulty saw the big defender muscle Wes York off the ball as the striker looked to make something happen.

Luton were suddenly coping much better with conditions as Guttridge slid Gray through on the hour, but Sleath put in an important block for a corner.

The Hatters looked to have doubled their lead from the subsequent set-piece as Inniss headed goalwards from Howells’ corner only for Boro to somehow smuggle the ball away.

But their reprieve was short-lived as Town went again and Gray was on hand to steer Griffiths’ low cross into the bottom left-hand corner.

Now buoyant the Hatters almost added a third moments later when Ronnie Henry’s cross bounced through to Howells’ and his first-time effort was turned over the bar by Belshaw.

Nuneaton made a double substitution in a bid to get back into the game and could have grabbed a lifeline when Moult jinked his way into the box on 73 minutes, but curled over.

There looked like there could still be goals in the game as the reaching Benson could only steer Robinson’s deep cross over the bar at the far post, before the target man just couldn’t connect with another Robinson centre.

But the Hatters did deservedly make it three with 13 minutes to go when McNulty’s clearing header ran through to Gray and he kept his cool to cleverly lift the ball past Belshaw with the outside of his foot for his hat-trick.

More good defending from McNulty denied Moult a sight of goal with 12 minutes to go, before Benson was withdrawn to a fine ovation as Mark Cullen came on for the last 11 minutes.

Sub James Armson went close for the visitors when he fired just wide from the edge of the area with eight minutes to go, but Town were still looking for more goals.

Cullen was straight into the action as he latched on to a throw-in but his low effort was well saved by Belshaw and, although Howells slid in to net the rebound, he was strangely flagged offside.

Struggling with a knock the former Welsh U21 was replaced by David Martin following his return from his loan spell at Dartford.

Boro threatened to ruin Town’s clean sheet as Gavin Cowan’s header from a corner was straight at Tyler before Martin lofted over the bar as Town eased to a well-deserved victory.

Hatters (4-3-3): Mark Tyler, Steve McNulty, Jake Howells (David Martin 86), Scott Griffiths, Ryan Inniss, Cameron McGeehan, Luke Guttridge, Matt Robinson, Ronnie Henry (C), Paul Benson (Mark Cullen 79), Andre Gray. Substitutes not used: Fraser Franks, Elliot Justham, Kane Ferdinand.

Boro (4-4-2): James Belshaw, Gavin Cowan, Gareth Dean (C), Adam Walker (Phil Trainer 79), Jon Adams (James Armson 65), Louis Malt, Andy Brown, Theo Streets, Danny Sleath, Wes York, Dave Hibbert (Connor Taylor 65). Substitutes not used: Delroy Gordon, Emmitt Delfouneso.

Referee: A Bromley. Assistant Referees: A Neil and M Eva. Fourth Official: S Feerick. Attendance: 7,310.

Star Hatter: Andre Gray. Simply can’t look past the hat-trick hero.

Football: Luton Town boss John Still's pride after Hatters re-write history books

Written byTOM SHARP

There has been a certain element of number crunching at Kenilworth Road this season as the Hatters continue to thrive under John Still.

This time against a rugged Nuneaton side, it was three more goals, three more points, a tenth straight home league win and most notably a club record 20th game unbeaten in the league.

Nevertheless the Hatters chief is still not getting carried away with a third of the season to go but he admits he is proud of his side’s endeavours.

“I am part of a team that has created that club record along with the players, supporters and staff,” said Still.

“It is a wonderful record to accomplish but we have other things we would like to achieve before the season is over.

“My motto for the players at the moment is to just keep doing what we are doing and not get overawed by records but I am very proud of that statistic nonetheless.”

It was a day for big performances as the weather again played its part on a dramatic afternoon.

A catastrophic downpour halted proceedings momentarily in the second half, but with the help of Andre Gray’s terrific hat-trick, Town marched on.

“With the greatest respect, a blind person would have known you had to come off because you could not even see the ball,” said the manager.

“You have to be sensible because there is a chance players can get injured in those rare types of situation.

“Credit my boys because they came out after the stoppage and they started again where they left off after Andre’s goal.

“We showed a bit of rust at the start and we could have taken a while to get going again after the stoppage but we just ploughed on and to bag another couple was excellent.

“It was an all-round team performance and I am delighted we managed to grind out another win to add to the rest.”

Still may be philosophical regarding Town’s record-breaking feats but he was quick to praise 18-year-old Norwich City loan star Cameron McGeehan on a “man’s performance.”

“He showed strength, power, quality and was overall immense,” said Still.

“I remember seeing him in the FA Youth Cup Final and he really caught my eye and again he caught my eye today.

“You can be 23 or 24 and still be a boy but Cameron put on a man’s performance out there.”