Town Defeated In Second Half

It was really a case of a good team against a great team when Luton Town 3rd XI hosted Shefford and Sandy in the 3rd round of fixtures in division 7SW. The game started relatively equally, both teams having chances, the visitors with the early possession, but Town's defense held up well to the pressure, occasionally breaking through the middle but with no real shouts on goal. A couple of short corners were unsuccessful either way with Alan Clark, Robin Barnes and Dean Pierce all having shots saved from Penalty Corners.

The game had started to become more physical around the 20 minute mark, with Robert Maidment receiving the home sides first green card of the season for a body check. Shortly after this, the visitors broke free through a gap in the centre of the defence, forcing keeper Tom Briggs into action, but colliding with the player and not the ball left the striker on the floor and resulted in a penalty flick, which was subsequently scored. The visitors could have doubled their lead before the break with a 1 on 1 with the keeper, caused by slow reactions from the town defence, but keeper Tom Briggs proved sharper, able to charge down the attacker and kick the ball to safety.

There were few chances for the home side to fight back leaving the half time score at 0-1.

The second half seemed to be a turn for the worse, as Shefford and Sandy became faster, brighter and more clinical, increasing their lead early in the second half, with a well worked ball to the back post. The home side had no time to recover before the visitors had a third, as once again, sloppy defending lead to yet another 1 on 1 with the keeper which this time was slotted neatly past Briggs to make it 4-0. A fifth soon followed and the leagues high flyers had scored their 14th goal in 3 games, and there was still 15 minutes left.

Town were beginning to get frustrated, and there was a smattering of contact both on and off the ball, the most notable was when Alan Clark collided with the Shefford skipper just outside the area, after the ball was pushed over the base line. On this occasion the umpire gave no punishment and the game resumed. The home side began to push higher up the pitch, determined to find a consolation, but they were soon having to track back as the visitor delivered another counter attack and yet another goal.

With their unbeaten record in tatters, town lost all fluidity apart from a couple of late attacks, the first when Will Maddens mis-controlled shot fell to winger Dean Pierce who fired agonisingly into the side netting, before the wide man failed to convert a superb cross from brother Steven Pierce, which was deflected onto Dean’s foot.
Despite Alan Clarks best efforts he was unable to keep morale up and town had fired their last shot. Not so for the visitors however, who scored yet another goal close to full time, scoring 7 for the second consecutive match as well as maintaining their first clean sheet of the season, whilst town suffered their first loss of the season and biggest defeat in over a year.

Final Score Luton Town 0-7 Shefford and Sandy
Captain Russell Maidment spoke after the match: “It was a bad one (Defeat) today, especially with missing personnel. There were some positives today apart from the obvious bad score line.”