Luton Town 1 v Manchester United 2
A very decent crowd of 7,480 turned out to see Luton Town's first team face United's Reserves.
It was the usual suspects on the United teamsheet with one or two slight changes.
Ron-Robert Zieler lined up in goal with Chester and De Laet in the middle. They were flanked by fullbacks Simpson and Gill and it must have been good for Simmo to return to a more familiar role after operating in midfield last Saturday against Norwich. Febian Brandy returned from injury so the Reds played a familiar 4:5:1 formation with Dudgeon wide on the left and anyone of Eikrem, Gray and Cleverley working down the right when they felt like it. Craig Cathcart was missing, having joined up with the first team squad in Germany.
The Reserves stayed in Norwich last Saturday night and travelled down to London on Sunday making the short journey north this morning.
Whatever R&R they had certainly paid dividends as United took the lead within 45 seconds. Good work on the left by Gill and Dudgeon saw the ball find Cleverley who played a nice through ball into the path of Brandy and he slotted it past the keeper from a tight angle.
Eight minutes later United went 2-0 up when Brandy was upended in the box and Cleverley calmly converted from the spot. Up to this point Luton had stood off the young Reds and quickly realised that if they let us play football they would be in for a mauling.
As a consequence, the Luton players - all very tall and physically strong - started to intimidate us with some very hefty tackles that saw DeLaet, Cleverly and Gray all needing treatment. Their tactics paid off and they began to get more into the game. Not long after a great ball across the box by Gray was met on the half volley by Brandy and the keeper made an unbelievable save from point blank range. If this was a Premiership game then Sky Sports would be raving about it. However, Luton promptly went up the other end and won a corner. Eikrem made a poor clearance and the Hatters pulled a goal back, although there were huge protests of offside from all the United players. Certainly from our postion behind the goal it looked offside.
Nevertheless, Luton got back in the game and at half time the score remained 2-1 to United with both teams sharing equal possession.
The second half was a different story. Stewart came on for Brandy at the break and went on to the right wing. We seemed very toothless with Stewart up front on Saturday, so Solskjaer moved David Gray up front. Luton started to dominate for long periods and the United defence had to hold firm. We had a few half chances, mainly through Gray and Hewson while they also had a couple of chances cleared towards the end.
Both teams made numerous substitutions in the second half, and when Moffatt came on for Hewson, David Gray moved back into midfield.
I suppose a draw would have been a fair result, but those two early goals made all the difference.
De Laet had a good game once again but for me David Gray was Man of the Match.
Team:
1. Zieler
2. Simpson
3. Gill
4. Chester
5. De Laet
6. Gray
7. Eikrem
8. Hewson
9. Brandy
10. Cleverley
11. Dudgeon
12. Moffatt (8) '83 - to right wing, CS up front and DG back into midfield
13. Heaton
14. Stewart (9) '46 - DG to centre-forward and CS to right wing
15. Ajose (11) '75 - straight swap
16. Wootton (4) '64 - straight swap
17. Brown (3) '62 - DS to left back and RB to right back
