Luton Town throw away two-goal lead in shocking defeat at Yeovil

AN early warning this may be, but Luton Town are in crisis.

It may only be four games into the season but the winless Hatters threw away another two-goal lead to lose at Yeovil and lurch to a new low after the capitulation against Oxford and the debacle against Bristol Rovers.

From the hope of 11 new summer signings and a position as hot promotion favourites, John Still’s men are now sitting third from bottom in the League Two table. They look a shambles.

At Huish Park it had all started so well and so quick – as Craig Mackail-Smith opened his Hatters account with a wonder volley four minutes in before Paul Benson had doubled the lead by the 18^th minute.

The less said about the middle and end the better, but mentioning it, in all its shambolic misery, is a must. And this was against a Yeovil team that had not picked up a point in this term, not netted since the opening day and one that fielded Luton reject defender Alex Lacey…in midfield.

For 38 minutes, the Glovers gave the kind of clueless show which suggested that form would continue and a first Luton victory of season was within easy reach. By the final reckoning, their triumph was fully deserved as Stephen Athurworrrey pulled one back before the break and then substitute Ryan Bird fired a quick-fire double in 11 minutes to turn it around.

The signs had not been good for the visitors, even with a two-goal cushion, as they struggled to get the basics right. Pass and move is certainly not the Luton groove this term. Scott Griffiths had one of his worst off days – caught short in all three Yeovil goals – and Ryan Hall, for all the summer promise that we would see a new player this term, was exactly as he was in an injury limited debut campaign – missing in action. He wasn’t the only one.

And even captain Steve McNulty put in a petulant performance that threatened to end his afternoon early. In the end it did as he was replaced at the interval with a yellow card and a final warning from referee Simon Hooper ringing in his ears.

The memory of 94 miserable midweek minutes was initially wiped away with a stunner from Mackail-Smith, who lobbed keeper Artur Krysiak from 25 yards.

Then, with his only useful contribution Hall, making his first start of the season, almost matched his team-mate’s wonder strike but his volley deflected for a corner and from that the Hatters doubled their lead. Jonathan Smith rescued a loose ball, Luke Wilkinson looped a ball to the back post that took out Krysiak and left Benson the easiest of tasks to tap in on the goal-line for his second of the season.

Very little happened for ten minutes and any quality was severely lacking, highlighted by a Hall mistake that allowed the Glovers some dangerous space, but they failed to make the most of their numerical advantage and Shaun Jeffers aimed tamely at Mark Tyler on his 270^th appearance for the club.

From a comfortable position, Hall and Griffiths allowed Connor Roberts far too much space to line up a cross and the midfielder measured it perfectly to pick out Arthurworrey who buried a header to halve the deficit.

So ordinary and unthreatening for much of the first half, the goal boosted the hosts’ confidence and with Luton rocking as half time approached, Tyler was at full stretch to push away Matthew Dolan’s long range rocket.

Red card waiting to happen McNulty was replaced at the interval by Mark O’Brien and Benson drew save from Krysiak after Wilkinson had found himself in nosebleed territory, twisting near the Yeovil corner flag to deliver a dangerous cross. They rarely got that far forward again.

Luton had flirted with danger on too many occasions, only to be saved by the offside flag but they got the punishment they deserved on 63 minutes when Harry Cornick crossed for Bird to stroke in from close range with virtually his first touch.

Then in the 73^rd minute a Smith tackle near the halfway line ricocheted calamitously backwards into the path of the Glovers’ goalscorer and he slammed an unerring finished underneath Tyler.

A shell-shocked Luton’s only response was a 90^th minute cross-cum-shot from Griffiths that hit the top of the bar, but in reality it would have been a travesty if they’d had scraped a point.

The only saving grace is that there is time to turn this form around. Quite how is another mystery.

Yeovil: Krysiak, Smith, Dolan, Arthurworrey, Sokolik, Jeffers (Bird , 60), Compton (Allen, 74), Lacey, Cornick, Roberts, Wakefield

Unused subs: Weale, Burrows, Sowunmi, Beck, Norris

Luton: Tyler, Smith, McNulty (O’Brien, 45), Cuthbert, McGeehan, Benson, Hall (Lawless, 58), Green (McCourt, 66), Griffiths, Mackail-Smith, Wilkinson

Unused subs: Justham, Ruddock, McQuoid,

Referee: Simon Hooper

Attendance: 3,830