Will AFCB Continue Unbeaten Run Against Luton?

Written by billythekid

After our two games against the bottom two clubs, one ended in a win, the other a draw. AFCB will be hoping to make it three unbeaten when they host Luton Town who are the last of the teams we play who are in a relegation spot. This is the rearranged game from the game that was abandoned when Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch. The game is on Wednesday evening at 7.30 pm. The Hatters position in the table at the moment is 18th, a relegation spot, shared with fellow promoted clubs Burnley and Sheffield United who are just below them. The Luton Town manager is Rob Edwards.

Edwards first full-time manager’s job was at his hometown club Telford United. After he left there amongst other appointments, he had a job with the FA as a coach. Then he joined League 2 side Forest Green Rovers, where he had a successful time, getting them promotion at the first attempt. At the end of that season he left to join Watford in the Championship as their manager, this turned out to be a bad move and he was sacked in September after some poor results.

Two months later he became manager of Luton Town, after Nathan Jones left to take up the manager’s job at Southampton. In his first full season in charge of the Hatters, he won promotion up into the Premier League. Luton Town have had a tough introduction to the Premier League, losing their first two games away from home, Brighton 4-1 and Chelsea 3-0. Other away defeats were at Fulham 1-0, Aston Villa 3-1, Manchester United 1-0, Brentford 3-1 and Liverpool 4-1. They have had two wins, beating Everton 1-2 and Sheffield United 2-3. They drew 2-2 with Nottingham Forest, Burnley 1-1 and that 4-4 game at Newcastle. Their most recent game was against Crystal Palace which ended 1-1. At home, they have W 3, D 2, L 9.

The last time the Hatters visited Dean Court was in the Championship in the 2021-22 season. Two first-half goals from Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke with both assists coming from Ryan Christie gave the Cherries a 2-0 lead at halftime. There was only one more goal scored in the game and that also came from an AFCB player, unfortunately, this was an own goal scored by Lloyd Kelly. This win after 9 games took the Cherries to the top of the table, where they finished second at the end of the season.

In all our home league games against Luton Town, AFCB have W 15, D 7, L 7.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 25, D 17, L 22.

AFCB Team News
No news on any new injuries after Saturday’s game.

AFCB Player To Watch
After the substitutions on Saturday, I liked the look of Ouattara and Sinisterra linking up together, they changed the game from our team losing, to nearly winning. Remains to be seen if they start for this game. Christie and Cook will be important in our midfield.

Luton Town Team News
They have a number of players out and some are key players for them.

Luton Town Player To Watch
Ross Barkley has proved a key player for Luton Town this season in midfield. He also has scored 3 goals and has 3 assists. Alfie Doughty is dangerous at crosses and set pieces, he leads with 6 assists. With Elijah Adebayo out injured, Carlton Morris is a danger for them up front, 8 goals and 4 assists to his name.

The Referee
Sam Ellison will be taking his second Premier League game when he is in charge of our game on Wednesday night. His first game in charge was the Boxing Day fixture between Sheffield United and Luton Town. He has never been a referee for any fixture involving the Cherries before.

Matt Stevenson added…

I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Luton. These were three home games (Shef U, Man U and A Villa) and an away game at C Palace. Luton gained 1 point which looked fair, although this would have been vs Shef U rather than Palace. Luton have scored 5 goals and conceded 9 with xG estimating 6.31 goals with 9.47 conceded.

Luton have had 3 different goal scorers and Morris has 3 of the 5 scored. Five players have 1 assist each.

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. Apart from the A Villa game it appears that Luton try and push high.

The following graph compares summary stats of Luton and AFCB over the last 4 games. Luton have worse stats throughout.

Luton have had more possession than AFCB. Whilst Luton appear to be good at set pieces (37% of attempts come from them) this season AFCB appear to be good at withstanding dead ball situations (only 25% of chances conceded come from these).

Your say…

cardiffcherry

Sam Allison is the ref. I hate that we (and Luton) are again the guinea pig for refs new to the PL. If he’s good enough, put him in for Liverpool Man City. – To join the conversation, click here.