Saints 2, Luton 1

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Saints came home to a game with Luton after a couple of decent away performances and kept the same sort of formation that finished on a high at Leeds.

They managed a bright start on an afternoon of squally showers that made life difficult for defenders and goalkeepers, especially Dean Kiely making his debut in the Luton goal. Kiely was first choice at Portsmuff for only a few months, but that was enough for him to get the required treatment from the fans, especially as he showed signs of it upsetting him.

After 13 minutes, Baird did well to get on the end of a Bale cross and Kiely made a bit of a mess of the save. It would have been one of football's ironies had the apparently nervy keeper kept out the penalty awarded after the referee's assistant (male, but Mike Newell still moaned) spotted a defensive handball as Skacel challenged, but Rasiak's shot just about had enough pace and direction.

It was a less encouraging performance from Saints in the second period, but they still threatened to kill the game off on the break, until Davis failed to come for a cross he probably should have gone after and then did attack the loose ball when he certainly should have stayed on his line. Perrett scored with a brave header, which is annoying as he used to be a Skate too. As had Viafara been. The midfielder was withdrawn as he had not showed much idea about providing cover from Makin, and the Sunday TV replay showed how close we came to first half disaster from that cause - Feeney had hit the post early on as Makin struggled to cover both winger and overlap. Never mind, all's well that ends well.

Man of the Match: Chris Baird for scoring his first goal. As he pointed out, the centre back pairing is hardly prolific with 3 goals between him and Lundekvam in 400 games.

Saints line up: Davis, Makin, Lundekvam, Baird, Bale, Viafara (Jones), Wright, Pele, Surman, Skacel (Licka), Rasiak - Unused subs: Bialkowski, Ostlund, Wright-Phillips

Attendance: 20,482