City v. St.Albans

Artus and Stearn start, Pratt on bench with Kington and Allen.

ht 0-0

Stearn header 1-0

Riding our luck....... But after last week we'll take anything

Been following on twitter but no news.
C'mon City hang on.

Have dominated last 15 but failed to score

As I speak 2-0 City Pratt

2-0 according to live scores??

Yessss happy days

Win 2-0, att 499

Not a Britton/Howells fan at all but having been clear in my complaining at last week's shambles I wanted to make sure I congratulated the team and coaching staff for a much improved performance all round today. Showed real hunger & energy with a tighter defence and more threat going forward. Much better!

Just wonder now what restructuring the club is going to do this week? A very bizarre statement with equally bizarre timing.

First half not a lot in it. St Albans very poor team. Second half we played well and could well have had 3 or 4. Stearn very good and Artus also played well. Howells even ventured out of the dugout at one stage. Obviously an improvement but still lots of questions to be answered - why does Stearn not start regularly? The evidence of the problems he can cause teams was there for all to see today.
I went away feeling that the second half was good entertainment value even though it was against a team with virtually nothing to offer.

Good comment about Howells coming out the dug out. Any visitor would think Rollo was the man in charge. At the final whistle I watched Howells go straight down the tunnel. No acknowledgement to the crowd, nothing! Any manager of any football club has a responsibility to at least recognise the supporters exist.
Pratt on the bench!? Did he say something to upset Management?
Really pleased to see Stern on the park and showing all what he can do. Energy, causing the defence problems, giving width with crosses that open up opportunitites for others and a great goal. Pratt was awesome coming on late in the second half. Both Stern and Pratt score goals. Football is about scoring goals so irrespective of the mess behind the scenes these guys must be played. Time to freshen up the dug out. Howells must see that writing is on the wall.

Pratt was struggling with a sore back apparently.

Yep, spoke to Pratt and he had a sore hip and back, has been struggling last two/three weeks apparently.

Yes Howells was conspicuous by his absence throughout the game bar one of the many poor decisions by today's ref that saw him spring from the dugout!

Much improved display, artus had a good game and really pleased that stearn and Watkins had a good second half.the referee was one of the worst I have seen at this level, fortunately he didn't have any pivotal decisions to make although we picked up a lot of bookings. Pratty coming on to make it 2-0 was the icing on the cake but it could easily have been 4 or 5.

A pity we didn't face St Albans in the cup - what a spineless shower they were! Agree with above comments and good to see Stearn grab his opportunity to start with an excellent performance. But what has happened to McCootie? He really looked the part on his debut but looks to be really struggling to adapt to this level since. A hat trick was there for the taking today.

Agree about the bizarre website statement - 6 days late.

May not feel like it but we are top of the form table, 13 pts from last 6 league games.

Agree that it was evenly matched in first half, but we could have got four more in the second half. Artus started off with a couple of poor passes, but quickly got into his groove.....he is technically a step above anyone else we have....great to see him back. Whilst McCootie didn't take his chances I still think he and Pratt would be my first choice up front. McCootie worked hard and caused problems running into the channels in the quieter first half and was unlucky on one occasion to slip at the crucial moment. Really pleased for Jason Mellor catching a few crosses and keeping a clean sheet, you could see his delight when he celebrated with Stearn at the end....helped his confidence no end. Gallinagh was most vocal I've seen him, geeing up and praising the other players. Also delighted to see Walshy training pre match and at half time, he was looking not too far away.
Finally, I think the Board have boxed themselves in with the short and sweet statement they issued. Based on the performance today they may now leave things as they are, and look silly about suggesting "a big announcement".... I still hope they come up with something substantial....hopefully still involving Howells moving on. His attitude again today as mentioned by others is not going to do himself any favours.

Luton Roman wrote:May not feel like it but we are top of the form table, 13 pts from last 6 league games.

and still in the trophy!

I thought the first half was dull in the extreme and quite poor football-wise. Better second half.
I was surprised how long it took to substitute McCootie who was clearly struggling at least 10 minutes before he went off. Contrary to comments above, I thought he did ok today but needs to work on his first touch.
Stearn also did good but there are still signs of why he isn't always first on the team-sheet. In the second half he made a few wrong choices, wasted possession and was greedy on occasion.

First half was poor, with neither side being an advert for football at this level.

Thought we played well second half, and as others have said we should probably have won by more. Once again we showed that we are a much better team when we keep the ball on the ground rather than 'hoofing' it.

I thought both Stearn and Watkins had excellent games - yes, Stearn does have his faults, but he is the sort of player that raises the crowd and was justifiably mom today. Watkins' first touch is amazing, as he showed when he set up Pratt's goal - one of the best moves I have seen for a while. Also thought Jason Mellor did okay in goal and deserved his clean sheet.

Also agree about the referee. Amazing that we had more bookings than St Albans because their players committed similar fouls to those our players were punished for but largely got away with it.

Will be interested to see what 'management' have to say - wonder if they will try to take credit for it, or actually acknowledge that it was the players who got the result?

Also looking forward to the announcement from the Board - I think they have put themselves in a bit of a corner, and today's result might make it harder for them to take the step that most people want.

Why do we have to negativlely comment on whatever stearn does wrong? He was man of the match today and deserved it.Would always have him on the team sheet as he does make things happen.Hope that the board have a plan to move Howells on as we definitely need new blood to help this good squad we have fulfill their potential.

I suppose it's to counter those who think he can do no wrong. As I said above, I thought he had a really good game today. But this is not the norm in games which he starts, a perfect example being at Bromley 2 weeks ago. Whoever is to select the team for the rest of the season, he needs to back up today's performance with similar ones. Like others in this squad, consistency is not his by word.

I am sure if we have a different management team and he is given a good run in the team his all round performances will improve.