Scunthorpe United vs Luton Town FC (26th Dec 2018)

SCUNTHORPE 0 HATTERS 2

Goals from Shinnie and Cornick make it seven league wins in a row

The Hatters made it seven Sky Bet League One wins in a row at Scunthorpe this afternoon to move within a point of leaders Portsmouth, who lost in the lunchtime kick-off at Gillingham.

A goal in each half from Andrew Shinnie and Harry Cornick secured another victory to extend the unbeaten league run to 11 matches, including ten wins, in a game that saw the Hatters have to ride their luck at times.

The second-placed Town are on a terrific run, however, and including FA Cup matches the run now stands at 13 unbeaten - including 12 wins - with a ninth clean sheet in that sequence meaning just four goals have gone past keeper James Shea since the defeat at Barnsley on October 13th.

Boss Nathan Jones was forced into the first change to his starting line-up for nine matches, as Glen Rea's absence through injury brought Jorge Grant back into the side.

Rea had to be substituted in the first half of Saturday's home win over Burton, and wasn't fit to take his place in the team.

Grant, who replaced him in the 2-0 win over the Brewers at Kenilworth Road, came in for his first start since the Accrington Stanley game on October 23.

Alan McCormack came onto the bench along with Lloyd Jones, who replaced Dan Potts, as the second-placed Town looked for a seventh straight league victory at the club who sat in 21st place, one inside the relegation zone, at kick-off.

In Rea's absence, and with club captain Alan Sheehan on the bench, Sonny Bradley wore the armband.

The Hatters started brightly, with Shinnie and Stacey both getting in on the right only to see low cut-backs intended for Collins intercepted, either side of Lee dragging his right-footed shot wide after some neat link-up play with Cornick on the edge of the area.

Scunthorpe started to find their feet after a shaky opening ten minutes, however, and saw volleys from Yasin Ben El-Mhanni and Lee Novak fly over the bar, before the latter fired straight at Shea from 18 yards in the 16th minute.

Funso Ojo was the next to have a go for the Iron, who were enjoying the better of the half, on 21 minutes, but once again Shea was equal to his shot from outside the area.

Rory McArdle headed Cameron Borthwick-Jackson's free-kick wide on the half-hour, then the Hatters almost took the lead against the run of play in the 34th minute.

Lee picked the ball up just inside his own half and found Cornick free on the right. After a perfect first touch to set himself up, the forward let fly from just inside the box only to find home keeper Jak Alnwick there to deny him a seventh goal of the season with a good save.

The breakthrough came in the 37th minute when Justin, who had just crossed for Pearson to head wide, nicked the ball in front of Ben El-Mhanni and burst down the left, then playing a lovely sideways ball across the D.

It reached Shinnie, who had drifted inside from the right, and the Scotsman bent a left-footed shot first time into the bottom corner from just outside the area, for his fifth goal of the season.

United tried to respond, Ojo blasting well off target from distance, but the Hatters had a half-time lead for the ninth game in a row, even if on this occasion it was against the run of play.

The lead was doubled five minutes into the second half when Lee pounced on an error in the hosts' defence and cracked a shot on goal that Alnwick could only parry into the path of Cornick, who smashed in his seventh goal of the season from close range.

Inevitably it brought chants of 'Last Christmas' from the travelling fans behind that goal, and almost immediately Lee came close to extending the lead, but his attempt at turning Pearson's header in from close range was blocked.

Lee was soon leadng the charge again, attempting one of his trademark curlers into the far corner from the left side of the area after Grant and Cornick had combined to set him free from deep inside their own half, but this one was deflected wide.

Shea made a point-blank save from a Kyle Wootton header with quarter-of-an-hour to go, just before Jones - who had already brought McCormack on for Grant - introduced Hylton for Cornick.

Within two minutes of his arrival, Hylton had caused havoc in the home area to win a corner, and then, after Bradley had headed Justin's delivery back across goal, he unleashed a right-footed volley that flew inches wide.

The same corner routine, Justin picking out Bradley at the far post, almost brought reward with four minutes left as Hylton attempted to get his head on the centre-half's header, but Scunthorpe managed to smuggle the ball away.

Fifty points for the season now. Safe from relegation and eyes pointing upwards, with the Town now one point off top spot and with a four-point cushion in the automatic promotion places, and 11 for the play-offs. A wonderful 2018 is ending very nicely for the Town!

Onto Walsall away on Saturday...

TOWN: Shea, Stacey, Pearson, Bradley (c), Justin, Mpanzu, Shinnie (Berry 90), Grant (McCormack 65), Lee, Collins, Cornick (Hylton 77). Subs: LuaLua, Jones, Sheehan, Stech

Yellows: Collins

GOALS: Shinnie 37, Cornick 50

SCUNTHORPE: Alnwick, Borthwick-Jackson, Ojo, Perch, Novak (Humphrys 82), Thomas, Ben El-Mhanni (Dales 83), Goode, Sutton, McArdle (c), Wootton. Subs: Flatt, Horsfield, Ugbo, Lewis.

Yellows: Perch

REFEREE: Martin Coy

ATT: 4,050

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmazsRquFpo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_eue7bbF_A

Magnificent seven for the Hatters as they defeat United

League One: Scunthorpe United 0 Luton Town 2

Luton made it seven straight league wins for the first time since the 2001-02 season as they held off a spirited Scunthorpe United this afternoon.

What made the result even better for the Hatters is that they went into the game knowing leaders Portsmouth had lost 2-0 at Gillingham, meaning that should they triumph, the gap would be down to a single point.

That they did, and although it was no Boxing Day cracker, United having the better of the first period, a display of real professionalism when 2-0 ahead after the break, saw Luton hit the 50-point mark, with only 24 games gone.

Visiting boss Nathan Jones was forced into his first change after going eight games with the same starting 11, skipper Glen Rea failing to recover from his knee injury against Burton on Saturday, Jorge Grant coming in, while Alan McCormack and Lloyd Jones were on the bench, Dan Potts absent.

Town made a fine start, Elliot Lee's wonderful pass setting Jack Stacey free who took a heavy touch and the chance went begging, while Lee himself then dragged tamely wide from 20 yards.

Although the hosts went into the game with six defeats in a row, not scoring in five of them, they didn't look without confidence as after getting on top of the game, could easily have broken the deadlock themselves, creating a number of decent chances.

First, with Town's defence not covering themselves in glory after Sonny Bradley's poor free kick gifted possession away, a number of weak tackles saw Funso Oje cross from the left and Yasin Ben El-Mhanni blaze wildly over from a matter of yards.

Lee Novak volleyed off target from another dangerous delivery by Ojo, who then tested James Shea himself with a bouncing volley, Town's keeper watching it into his gloves all the way.

Ojo opted to go it along from range soon afterwards, Shea collecting easily, but the hosts were definitely in the ascendancy as Luton's defending started to take on a more desperate feel to it.

However, as all good sides seem capable of, Luton then broke away at the other end, and almost took the lead on 34 minutes when Lee spotted Harry Cornick in space on the right.

He sent over a lovely clipped pass which the attacker took down perfectly, arrowing a shot towards the bottom corner only to see home keeper Jack Alnwick stick out a strong right hand to make an excellent parry.

Alnwick was picking the ball out of the net on 37 minutes though with a brilliant free-flowing move.

Referee Martin Coy deserved great credit as with Lee down wanting a free kick, he let play go on, James Justin speeding away on the left, cutting the ball back across the edge of the penalty area where Shinnie timed his run perfectly to send a first time left footer into the bottom corner from 20 yards.

Although it was harsh on the hosts, it was further notice of just how deadly the Hatters are in front of goal at this current moment in time, Shinnie bagging a fifth of the campaign.

After the break, the hosts came close to levelling, Kyle Wootton heading over, but Luton then doubled their lead just three minutes in.

Lee's 25-yarder was well hit, but Alnwick won't be happy in parrying it straight back into the danger area, Cornick following up to beat the keeper.

A third almost followed immediately, as Pearson looped a header goalwards from Justin's free kick and rather than nod it in, Lee opted to chest and shoot, his effort blocked away.

Luton clearly sensed adding to their goal difference, as from a free kick, they broke at pace, Lee's curler from distance taking a nick and deflecting behind.

Town brought on Alan McCormack for a first league run out since October for Grant, while Shea had to make a smart save from Kyle Wootton's header, his handling impeccable.

Danny Hylton was introduced for goalscorer Cornick, inches away from adding a third, his angled volley after a corner dropped invitingly not missing by much.

Late on, the hosts applied a degree of pressure, Lee producing a wonderful sliding block and Pearson heading a corner away from the goal-line, while Shea fisted Cameron Borthwick-Jackson's free kick over the bar, to show the level of commitment to the cause from every member of the Hatters' side.

Results elsewhere made it an even better afternoon for Luton, with Peterborough, Charlton and Doncaster all losing, as the Hatters head to Walsall looking to make it eight straight wins on Saturday.

Iron: Jak Alnwick, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Funso Ojo, James Perch, Lee Novak (Stephen Humphreys 81), George Thomas, Yasin Ben El-Mhanni (Andy Dales 82) Charlie Goode, Levi Sutton, Rory McArdle (C), Kyle Wootton.

Subs not used: Jonathan Flatt, James Horsfield, Ike Ugbo, Clayton Lewis.

Hatters: James Shea, Jack Stacey, James Justin, Matty Pearson, Sonny Bradley, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Andrew Shinnie (Luke Berry 90), Jorge Grant (Alan McCormack , Elliot Lee, James Collins, Harry Cornick (Danny Hylton 77).

Subs not used: Marek Stech, Alan Sheehan, Kazenga LuaLua, Lloyd Jones.

Referee: Martin Coy.

Booked: Perch 64, Collins 90.

Attendance: 4,050.

Jones felt Luton were 'weak' during first half at Iron

Luton boss Nathan Jones felt his side were fortunate to be in front at the interval during their 2-0 win at Scunthorpe this afternoon after a first half display he described as ‘weak.’

The Hatters had the better of the opening five minutes, before Iron then created plenty of chances, Yasin Ben El-Mhanni blasting over from a few yards, while Lee Novak was off target too.

However, Andrew Shinnie put Town in front after a quickfire break on 37 minutes, with Harry Cornick doubling the advantage five minutes into the second period, as Luton made it seven straight victories in League One.

Jones said: “I’m delighted more with the result than the overall performance, because I felt we rode our luck a little bit first half.

“We weren’t really at it, we looked weak I think, and it wasn’t until we scored did we really looked like we had a foothold in the game.

“We started the first five minutes and I thought we were excellent, we had chances to be fair, got in behind them, could have done better with a couple of opportunities.

“But then they were better than us, they played a strange shape if you like in terms of what they did.

“They went 3-3-4, real positive up top to try and get the result that they needed and we struggled to get to terms with it.

“But second half I thought we came out much better, managed the game much better and thought we were deserved winners overall.

“Because we just had that little bit more quality, but on chances, they probably shaded it.”