2018/19 Prediction League; Game 43 v Luton Town (home)

Div3North · 18-04-2019, 00:24

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Luton Town FC

2018/19 Prediction League; Game 43 v Luton (home)

Back in the heady days of October, when we went a-travelling down Dunstable way, I included this sentence in the Luton Town Away Game thread opener;

• Well, ‘pon my jolly old soul; five wins in six, two defeats in 14, our highest ever place in the Football Pyramid (4th), a GD of +5, and no sign of the bubble bursting .............

Got that last bit wrong, didn’t I?

At least we know two of the sides we’ll be meeting next year in League One, as Lincoln come up and Ipswich slide down the GPOO (Greasy Pole of Oblivion!) ................ And as long as Bury hold their nerve (and HMRC don’t get a winding-up order on 15th May), the last week of the season could see a one-match automatic promotion-place shoot-out in League Two, when Mansfield and the MK Dons meet at the Field near the Mill .......... Apart from the Imps, it’s perm any two from – probably – four (Bury on 74, Mansfield 73, MK 72 and Tranmere 71) with the other two plus Vegan Greenpeace and Exeter for the Play-offs ........... no-one has a game in hand, and 8th placed Carlisle are four points and a lot of goals behind the top 7 ................ crunch games look like Carlisle v Lincoln and Tranmere v Vegan Greenpeace on Good Friday, Lincoln v Tranmere on Monday, Tranmere v Bury on 27th, and VGU v Exeter and MKD v Mansfield on Saturday 4th May.

Bolton will also be Greasy-Poling from the Championship (10 points off safety, four to play, and a GD of -43!); then it’s probably one from Rotherham, Wigan, Millwall and Reading ............... and you have to admire the logic of Ipswich about How To Win Things; your new and short-lived Manager signs a load of lower-league players about whom – how do I put this politely - the Jury’s still out; then you sack said manager; then you go all-out for relegation, which you are the first in your Division to achieve; then you argue that your lower-league players will be Top Class in League One, you’ll go straight back up, and your fans think you’re brilliant ...... OK .................. Elsewhere, Torquay have won the Bananarama South, Aldershot have been relegated again, and the Bananarama North is between Stockport and Chorley - Stockport a point ahead, and they meet at Edgeley Park on Saturday; Chorley play two more of the top six sides in their last two games (Spennymoor and Bradford Park Avenue), so get your mortgage on County, with Chorley maybe doing it through the playoffs – but we’ll see ...............

The top five in League One are all into post-season; technically Charlton could be caught by Posh (15 points behind with five to play, but a much worse GD (+9 to +24)) ........... realistically you’ve got to fancy Donnie for the final Play-off spot (unless we give them a right thumping on Easter Tuesday; their other games are at Sunderland and Oxford, and they finish with a visit from Coventry – and watching the highlights, Coventry and Sunderland could both use a few defenders; 5-4? Mind you, what happens if the EFL meeting on 25th April kicks Coventry out of the League for being Homeless goodness only knows ……….)

The LambChops or the Moggies for the final automatic spot? Or will Pompey sneak through on the rails like they did a couple of years back? (Well they are the current form team (5 wins in 5, whereas Luton’s last five are W2 D2 L1) ........Watch this space!) ...................... And Nathan Rentagob Jones’ bubble’s bursting too .......... he’s been at Stoke since 9th January, and his League record there is W3 D8 L5 ............. 17 points from 15 games, and one place lower than when he started? Why on earth did he go there? Whatever Luton is, it’s not a poisoned chalice, but I’m not sure you could say the same about the Stoke job .......

Luton’s only foray into the Transfer market in January was to ProperSign MF George Moncur – son of John Moncur (Spurs, Swindon and the Hammers), and once of West Ham and Colchester - from Barnsley; as well as him, they brought in on loan MF George Thorne from Derby, QPR’s Alex Baptiste, a defender with well over 450 games played in a 17 year career with – among others – Mansfield, Blackpool and Bolton, Brighton striker Aaron Connolly (whose career began with Mervue United from Galway, and Scottish striker Jason Cummings – only 23, but with four years at Hibs where he scored 55 in 11, and two Scottish caps in 2017 - from Notts Forest .............. CB Akinlolu Richard Olamide Famewo left for Norwich, and eleventy-billion went out on loan, several of them to Havant and Waterlooville – which may or may not explain their relegation from the B-N-N-R-M- ............. Andrew Shinnie managed to get sent off last week against Charlton, so he won’t be bothering us his time round

They put Wycombe and Bury out of the FA Cup before falling on the Owls’ Sword in a replay; they only lasted one game in the EFL Cup (1-0 loss at the Baggies); and they made Round Two of the Troffy before losing 4-2 on pens at home to Southend after a half-Desmond .............. leading scorers are James Collins with 22, Elliott Lee with 10, Harry Cornick and Danny Hylton with 8 each and Matty Pearson with 6 .............. all in all they’ve scored 81 in the League (GD of +44!), plus 3 in four games in the FA Cup, none in one game in the EFL Cup, and 7 in four in the Troffy – 91 in all ............... oh, and by the way, their under 8s team has just beaten Juventus u8s 6-1 in Dortmund to win the International Cup, so the BBC tells us!

Top of the Car Crash League are Bradford and Walsall with no wins in five; Southend and Scunthorpe have one draw and four losses, and Plymouth have 2 draws and 3 defeats ............ Wycombe – who’ll have a big say in who goes down, looking at the fixtures – broke their losing streak with a 2-0 win at Southend, both goals coming from You Fat Bastard (who’s the Chairboys’ leading scorer with 8, 2 ahead of Joe Jacobson)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 5.30pm on Saturday 20th April (yes, we get Good Friday off!) Last Saturday turned down the heat under the pressure cooker somewhat, and looking at the fixtures and the form, maybe we’ll do ok ............. and I might just run a one-off competition for people to pick the four teams they think will go down the GPOO ...........let me see; Bratfud, Walsall .................

And the “Man Bailed Over Barnsley ‘Tunnel Row' ” MIGHT, perhaps, be a Leading League One Manager ............ well, at the moment he is!

Good luck to everyone! ........... Keep the Faith! .................. And thanks for playing ........................ And have a Happy Easter – and may the Easter Bunny be nice to you all!