Luton Town FC vs Southport (29th Sep 2012)

Luton Town 3 - 1 Southport

THE Hatters made it back-to-back wins with a convincing victory over Southport at Kenilworth Road.

An impressive strike from Stuart Fleetwood put the side ahead inside five minutes and a brace from Scott Rendell, which included one from the penalty spot, secured the three points for the club .

It was a game that improved as it went on – the team left the pitch to boo’s at half time after conceding just before the whistle, but left to cheers at full time thanks to a comfortable and assured second half.

Loan signing Simon Ainge, who joined the Hatters from Grimsby this week, landed a place in the starting line up alongside Connor Essam in central defence and was consistent throughout.

The Hatters got off to the kind of start that manager Paul Buckle has been talking about for weeks, and went ahead with just four minutes on the clock.

Following neat forward passing, Stuart Fleetwood, unleashed a curling effort from the edge of the box that beat goalkeeper Tony McMillan to net his ninth of the campaign so far.

After the initial burst of excitement, the game settled down, though Luton still held the majority of the possession. Play was halted was halted for a lengthy period while the linesman, who appeared to be injured, was replaced by the fourth official, which ruined the momentum of the game.

After the restart Essam came perilously close to giving the visitors a helping hand with an own goal.

The defender connected with a right-wing Shaun Whalley cross but the ball dipped just over the crossbar.

Chris Almond could have scored the equaliser from the resulting Southport corner, but his powerful header went over the goal.

Southport continued to work their way into the match with a succession of free kicks, which the defence and keeper Mark Tyler did well to deal with.

But on the stroke of half time the visitors managed to find the leveller, Andrew Parry doing enough to force a low ball passed Tyler.

The team left the pitch to boos at the half time whistle, but the fans were cheering again just three minutes into the second half after Scott Rendell put Town ahead again.

Following impressive link up play between Fleetwood and JJ O’Donnell, the resulting cross was met by Rendell who poked the ball home.

The goal lifted the Hatters, who began to do what they do best and get the ball down on the ground and pass.

Luton extended their lead further from the penalty spot in the 54th minute.

The decision came after Fleetwood was cut down in the box by Parry, and the resulting spot kick was coolly converted by Rendell.

The striker was denied his hat-trick a minute later after stretching out a leg to force a low cross in the back of the net, but the keeper managed to collect the ball.

From there on the Hatters were in command of the game and could have scored more, with opportunities falling to Fleetwood and Alex Lawless.

Luton will now face Lincoln City away from home next Saturday afternoon in a bid to extend the winning run to three games and find the consistency that manager Paul Buckle is craving.

Luton Town: Mark Tyler, Alex Lawless, Scott Rendell, Jake Howells, Simon Ainge, Stuart Fleetwood (Jon Shaw), JJ O’Donnell, Yaser Kasim (Lathaniel Rowe-Turner), Connor Essam, Ronnie Henry, Andre Gray

Subs: Jake Robinson, Dan Walker, Dean Brill

Southport: Tony McMillan, James Smith (Steven Tames) , Chris Lever, Andrew Parry, Simon Grand, Shaun Whalley, Karl Ledsham, Chris Almond (Russell Benjamin), Alan Moogan (Liam Willis) , Chris Lynch, Godfrey Poku

Subs: Steve Akrigg, Zac Hibbert

Att: 5696 (77 away)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/npUhUGydahI

Boss Paul Buckle was delighted with his side’s second half performance as the Town moved up to third in the table with a 3-1 win over Southport at Kenilworth Road.

Stuart Fleetwood had the Hatters ahead inside four minutes but the visitors levelled things up on the stroke of half-time through Andrew Parry.

But, as Buckle revealed to Hatters Player, stern words at the break had the desired effect as the Hatters scored twice through Scott Rendell in the opening six minutes of the second half to secure victory.

“I’m happy now, but at half-time I wasn’t,” Buckle said. “The important thing was that we won and, because you’re greedy, you want a performance to go with it and in the second half that’s what we got.

“We made a good start in the first half and I was thinking, like most people in the ground, here we go, we’ll march on from here, but that wasn’t the case.

“We allowed Southport back in the game, maybe we thought it was too easy.

“Allowing them back into it was hugely frustrated and at half-time I gave them a bit of rocket and told them to get their tackles in and to get on the front foot.

“It worked and once we got our noses ahead there was no looking back.

“The second half was where we need to be. We are continually making it hard for ourselves but we’ve got to be patient.

“You’ve got to remember we’re still building a team – today we fielded two centre-halves who hadn’t played with each other before.

“The bar has been raised but there is still room for improvement, we all know that.

“We’re improving all the times and we’re up there in the top three now. We just need to get that consistency and slowly it’s getting there.”