Fans/atmosphere

I must say considering the performance level in the second half it was pleasing to see the lads being cheered off the pitch at the end. Being kept in for ten minutes after the whistle took the michael, and I'm sure most Hoop fans had a good laugh at us afterwards!

The atmosphere between the fans, especially as I was sitting right on the home/away end corner, was brilliant, most of it light hearted and fun, considering our football was so poor I'm glad there was some atmosphere. Credit to the QPR fan with "Grandad 1" on the back of his shirt, he knew how to win up over 1,000 Lutonians that's for sure!

All in all a good night spoilt by our second half performance

Day's ratings

Stadium - 6/10 Loftus Road
Home fans - 7/10 Got behind their team and made a cracking atmosphere but it can't be too high as I hate their club so much!
Away fans - 8/10 Good singing and amount, some I believe were queing outside for a while before kick off too
Journey - 5/10 Nervous on the tube before hand and not a seat until St Albans on the way home. Overall pretty poor
Programme - 6/10 Expensive and reading what Holloway has to say seems like a slight rip off
Match itself - 6/10 First half was better than the first but neither were particularly great halfs
Performance - 6/10 Would be worse but to be fair to the lads we had the better of QPR in the first half
Hatters' star Man - Russell Perrett (7/10) Didn't do a lot wrong and considering it was his first start for a long time, he did well

Queens Park Rangers 1-0 Luton Town

Match Report

A game of two halves is how manager Mike Newell summed up the match, with us having had the best of the first period and them being the side to play football, even if it wasn't great football, in the second half. However you want to dress it up though, this was a match we could and should have won, and if we had only performed to our capabilities, we surely would have gone away with all three points.

Brkovic had arguably the best chance of the first half at Loftus Road when, in the 20th minute, his shot went wide of Royce's goal; the angle proving too tight for the Croat. Neither team created too much in the opening 45, although Feeney's should have done better with about ten minutes of the half remaining, his shot however, tamely struck at Royce. Despite a couple of breakaways by the hosts, it was Luton who had the better of the chances, and right on half time a solid save from QPR's Simon Royce denied Kevin Nicholls from grabbing the lead from his direct free-kick.
*Half-time Queens Park Rangers 0-0 Luton Town

From the word go in the second period, our performance went downhill and despite the fact they hadn't been playing well, it was no surprise when a QPR free-kick from the edge of the box found its' way into our goal. Some blamed the wall, others blamed Beresford, but either way Lee Cook's strike was a nice curler which gave them the lead
*GOAL 58 minutes HOOPS 1-0 Hatters
As the half wore on Luton got worse and eventually negative comment from the away end were probably merited. Furlong could have all but sealed the win withing ten minutes of QPR taking the lead, but the striker (not a friend of many Luton fans) balsted over.

On came Enoch for the last fifeteen minutes but depsite a few late, desperate, hopeful high balls into the home side's penalty area, the sort that cost us so many times two seasons ago, and paid dividends last season, we couldn't find that equiliser that would have sent us quite mad I'm sure. It was a case of 'if only' when Mick Thorpe blew his whistle to signal our second defeat of the season.

Steve Bostock©