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Luton - home, Falmer Years:
23-24 Prem season 13 . No meetings from 2011.
manager: Rob Edwards (2022) P0 @ July '23 . Experience: Prem rookie who lost merely a handful of games in the C'ship.
ground: Kenilworth Road 10.3k . nickname: Hatters . shirt: white, orange.
Prem record from 11/12 to 23/24: (5, 7, 1 Conf), (8, 11, 4 / 2 L2), (1 L1), (19, 12, 6, 3 C), 17 @ 1/12/23.
* * * promo - '23 C, '14 cn, '18 L2, '19 L1 . p-os - '22 C'ship.
Prem points: - < -, 9
recent managers: Nathan Jones (20-22), Graeme Jones (19-20)
23/24 odds at start: rel 1-3, bottom 6-4, stay up 9-4 . sack RE 14/1 . expected to finish: 20th
run in from 30/3/24: Spurs x-x (A), Arsenal x-x (A), B'mouth x-x (H), Man City x-x (A),
Brentford x-x (H), Wolves x-x (A), Everton x-x (H), West Ham x-x (A), Fulham x-x (H)
run in *forecast @ 18/3/24: ?pt > *?pts . max was ? . Actual = ? . Po was ?th . Actual po = ?th
Luton away:
Seasn . W D L . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . . W% L%
23/24 - 1 1 05 . 06 15 -09 . 04 17 = 0.57 44.4 . 14.2 71.4 - Rob Edwards
17/18 - 22/23 not Premier League.
Albion v Hatters (H) from 17/18: - - - - - -, 4-1 . . . W = 1 D = 0 L = 0 . F4 A1
scorers: March, Pedro, Adingra, Ferguson
memorable match: Season13 (H) - Town's Prem debut on opening day at the Amex.
note: for away Falmer Years results and reports scroll further below.
Season13, 7th Premier League (H) Sat 12/8/23 - w 4-1 ~ March, Pedro, Adingra, Ferguson
During pre-season friendlies Luton played; Peterboro 3-1 (H), Ipswich 1-1 (A) & Sheff Wed 1-2 (A) by end of July. Next up was Wolves 0-0 (A) and twice Bochum 2-1 & 1-3 (A) in Germany prior to their Prem kickoff. It was now opening day of our 7th straight campaign in the Prem and guess what? Yeah - who knew? Albion were 6th last term, while Hatters joined the Prem for their very first time when finishing 3rd in the C'ship then winning the '23 p-o final on penalties. We'd last hosted them at Withdean during the noughties while playing as League One outfits. Their recent back-story is one of fall & rise thru lower leagues until hitting heights in the last two seasons. Thus it is an unusual, if somewhat unlikely scenario, although real enough. Late last century Town were playing at equivalent of Prem & Championship levels prior to relegation into L1, when Albion were also seriously struggling during the nineties. You might say they were a bit of a yo-yo club, given the string stretched right down into non-league over a decade ago. So we didn't get to entertain this resurgent Bedfordshire outfit anytime at the Amex until now. In the Aug transfer window Rob Sanchez was sold to Chelsea (25m) and Aaron Connolly went to Hull. Mac Allister had gone to Liverpool (35m) but James Milner came the other way. Also Mahmoud Dahoud (B Dortmund) & Joao Pedro (Watford 30m) joined us by end of June. Bart Verbruggen (gk) (Anderlecht 16m) & Igor Julio (Fiorentina 15m) came aboard in July. On the Friday before Saturday's mid Aug kickoff Moises Caicedo was offered a deal by Liverpool at an agreed Prem record price with BHA of 111m. Meanwhile the ex-level2 outfit had spent a lowly 10m+ in the window on 2 buys, with another 2 undisclosed, plus 3 frees and 2 on loan. Hatters boss Rob Edwards would experience his baptism of fire at elite level today. On paper beforehand it was a banker home win but from past experience we couldn't take anything for granted from football forecasts whatever the standard.
*** match report: in the event Albion ran out winners by three clear goals. But visitors put up a fight for majority of this low grade contest and stayed in the game until late on. March opened scoring with a header from Mitoma's high centre (36mins). And it stayed that way up to halftime and on thru majority of the match. Then Pedro went down in the box, got up and netted a soft pen (71mins). Ten minutes later Town pulled one back in front of their massed support who went wild with delight. Dunk had been adjudged to have handled when slip-sliding across a pass and Ref pointed to the spot (81mins). De Zerbi made two double changes and shortly afterwards the two goal cushion was restored. Sub Adringa was a nuisance on debut to harried defenders and as the ball dropped he smacked it inside the post (85min). Freguson completed the south-coast goal fest by touching home an accurate cross from Estupinan in stoppage time (95mins). Everybody went away happy, even travelling support of both clubs stuck fast in national rail chaos. Orange shirted visitors were getting a thrill from just seeing live elite action. There was plenty of improvement expected in coming weeks for each outfit but a gulf in experience & knowhow was already apparent. Seven years ago Man City had taught us an early lesson here on our Prem debut. It's a tough division and to be one of the twenty highest clubs next time around has to be earned in more than merely blood, toil, tears and sweat.
stats: ht 1-0, goals 36,71,85,95-81, poss 71%-29%, on target 12-3, off target 15-6, corners 6-7, fouls 11-12, yellows 2-2, subs 5-5, shape 4231-352
weather: cloudy . gate: 31,872 . MoM: Milner - top veteran with class
team: 23 Steele 6 Milner 29 van Hecke 5 Dunk 30 Estupinan 7 March 8 Dahoud 13 Gross 22 Mitoma 9 Pedro 18 Welbeck
subs: 11 Gilmour 74 (8), 24 Adingra 74 (7), 28 Ferguson 79 (18), 34 Veltman 79 (6), 10 Enciso 88 (9)
bench: 1 Verbruggen 3 Julio 17 Alzate 40 Buonanotte
squad: 26 Ayari 36 Moran 42 Offiah . injured: 2 Lamptey 4 Webster 14 Lallana 15 Moder
Prem P1 . W1 D0 L0 . F4 A1 . W0 D0 L0 . F0 A0 . Pt3 Po2 = 3.00pt/gm . W = 100% L = 0%
Hatters:
Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L%
hfwy: 13 . 02 03 08 . 12 23 -11 . 09 17 = 0.69 . 15.3 61.5
start: 10 . 01 02 07 . 09 20 -11 . 05 18 = 0.50 . 10.0 70.0 - R Edwards
EFL Cup: Exeter 1-0 (A) R3, Gillingham 3-2 (H) R2
FA Cup: R3
Oct: 18th in table, 1pt off 17th at Q1.
Seasons 7-12 (1st-6th) - not Prem.
Seasons 1-6 - not C'ship.
Luton previous Prem:
Seasn . W D L . . F A GD . . . Pt Po pt/gm . . W% L%
23/24 -
17/18 - 22/23 not Premier League
Knockouts:
FA Cup - tba
EFL Cup - R3
* * * * *
See Withdean Era (1999 to 2011) and Clubs scroll in Archive:
Seasons 5 03/4, 9 07/8 - League One, Season7 05/6 - Championship.
Season10 08/9 - League Trophy (H & A).
Withdean era: Albion V Hatters 2-0, 1-1, 3-1 . . . W = 2 D = 1 L = 0
0-0 EFL Trophy.
memorable match: Season9 (H) - work in progress aiming for a p-o spot.
see: Seasons 5, 7, 9, 10 for club & stadium info. Also Mark McGhee, Dean Wilkins & Micky Adams.
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Luton - away, Falmer Years:
23-24 Prem seaon 13 . No visits from 2011.
Luton home:
Seasn . W D L . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . . W% L%
23/24 - 1 02 03 . 06 08 -02 . 05 17 = 0.83 55.5 . 16.6 50.0 - Rob Edwards
17/18 - 22/23 not Premier League.
Hatters v Albion (A) from 17/18: - - - - - -, ? . . . W = 0 D = 0 L = 0 . F0 A0
scorers: none
memorable match: Season13 (A) -
note: for home Falmer Years results and reports scroll further up.
Season13, 7th Premier League (A) Tue 30/1/24 - tba
Brighton fans were going to Kenilworth Road and what an experience to behold on a Jan Tuesday nite after the Prem mid-season break. Our previous darkest knockout visit back in the winter of '09 had ended in tears, although Albion support put on a collective brave face in trying circumstances (see scroll below and also Withdean Era tab). Apparently Town had spent 12m to upgrade their ground to Prem spec minimum standards. Hopefully this would erase worrysome memories of being on the end of a few reversals up there during those noughties of trouble & strife. Ask Grandad if you doubt trends of above notes. And recall Forest away only last term for a quick one-off reference. Incidentally Luton were fined for homophobic chanting for their first Prem game at the Amex back in August. At the moment Brighton were xth, while Luton were xth tba. In the Jan transfer window... tba.
*** match report: tba day after result
stats: ht , goals , poss %-%, on target , off target , corners , fouls , yellows , subs , shape
weather: . gate: . MoM:
team:
subs:
bench:
squad: . injured: 7 March 10 Enciso
Prem P22 . W D L . F A . W D L . F A . Pt? Po? = x.xxpt/gm . W = xx% L = xx%
Seasons 7-12 (1st-6th) - not Prem.
Seasons 1-6 - not C'ship.
* * * * *
Withdean era:
Seasons 5 03/4, 9 07/8 - League One, Season7 05/6 - Championship.
Season10 08/9 - League Trophy (H & A).
Withdean era: Hatters V Albion 2-0, 3-0, 1-2 . . . W = 1 D = 0 L = 2
4pen3 1-1 aet EFL Trophy.
Noughties last there - 17/2/09 (A) JP Trophy area final.
A rather disappointing result from a rare but live chance to put BHA into EFL record books.
memorable match: Season9 (A) 12/4/08 (A) League One.
The only time from three irregular fixtures at Kenilworth Road this decade that we took back any points.
see: Seasons 5, 7, 9, 10 for club & stadium info. Also Mark McGhee, Dean Wilkins & Micky Adams.
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