The last time we played Luton...

[RavsFan]

They will clearly try to bully us. Doak will be targeted for special attention and if Hackney is back they will cynically leave trailing legs in for him to kick and then roll around like a hippo in mud. Morris will be throwing himself to the ground like Ronaldo. I hate Luton and all they stand for, they are a horrid team.

That said, I think if we play early balls, show good movement and use the spaces between the lines we will prevail. We need to use the left more and I think we will win 2-0 utb

 

[MidlandsBoroFan]

Not sure Luton was a turning point. We played well and were unlucky. The games against Coventry were tight because they were a very good side.
I don't think there's any chaper to close we Luton, we've beaten them on the last two occasions at home.

Agreed. It looked for a while like we had an outside chance of catching SU, but in reality we left it way too late and this was never going to happen. We were always going to get into the playoffs and most were happy with Cov not Sunderland.

Turning points for me were the injuries we got at the end of the season, plus the chance in the Cov away leg (Akpom from memory) that he should have buried but hit the woodwork. That goes in, everything changes - I think we get past Cov and would probably have been slight favourites in the final.

 

[wilkos_perm]

Agreed. It looked for a while like we had an outside chance of catching SU, but in reality we left it way too late and this was never going to happen. We were always going to get into the playoffs and most were happy with Cov not Sunderland.

Turning points for me were the injuries we got at the end of the season, plus the chance in the Cov away leg (Akpom from memory) that he should have buried but hit the woodwork. That goes in, everything changes - I think we get past Cov and would probably have been slight favourites in the final.

Yep, we were the better side in the first leg and had a couple of good chances.

 

[starplayer]

Just seen its a 12:30 kick off. Glad I checked. I do agree with the OP. I remember we changed the team around and rested Chuba iirc. Probably just a coincidence as it was late in the season but we were not as fluent afterwards or sides just sussed us out a bit. We then had the big rebuilds. We are just consistency away from being back to pre Luton 2023 though.

 

[LaPennaBianca]

Agreed. It looked for a while like we had an outside chance of catching SU, but in reality we left it way too late and this was never going to happen. We were always going to get into the playoffs and most were happy with Cov not Sunderland.

Turning points for me were the injuries we got at the end of the season, plus the chance in the Cov away leg (Akpom from memory) that he should have buried but hit the woodwork. That goes in, everything changes - I think we get past Cov and would probably have been slight favourites in the final.

Howson getting injured and Mowatt filling in was the biggest issue for me.

Mowatt was decent, but in a game of fine margins we needed Howson.

 

[Marvanelli]

Hopefully we push Luton further into a relegation scrap.

Last season they barely give themselves a chance of safety. Their recruitment was appalling. They were buying League 1 players, instead of giving themselves a chance of staying up.

Their squad is still poor now and there no surprise to see them at the bottom end of the table. I thin they have very little chance of getting in the top 6.

Saturday is a great opportunity to get ourselves right in the PO's and hopefully a few results of the teams above us go our way again.

 

[viv_andersons_nana]

Hopefully we push Luton further into a relegation scrap.

Last season they barely give themselves a chance of safety. Their recruitment was appalling. They were buying League 1 players, instead of giving themselves a chance of staying up.

Their squad is still poor now and there no surprise to see them at the bottom end of the table. I thin they have very little chance of getting in the top 6.

Saturday is a great opportunity to get ourselves right in the PO's and hopefully a few results of the teams above us go our way again.

They’re so bad that if they beat us on Saturday they’ll be three points behind us. And our form over the last six matches is identical - W2, D1, L3. This is a horrible, horrible fixture for us to have ahead of an international break.

 

[Marvanelli]

They’re so bad that if they beat us on Saturday they’ll be three points behind us. Our form over the last five matches is identical - W2, D1, L2.

And if we beat them on Saturday, we'll likely be in the top 6 and they'll be lucky to still be outside the bottom 3 on GD.

 

[viv_andersons_nana]

My point is that people are slagging someone’s recruitment off and saying they’re a poor team when we’re only a couple of results ahead of them in the table. In my opinion. If we finish top 6 and them bottom 6 then maybe fair enough, but right now it’s a very close league and there’s not really a great deal between any of the teams. That’s evidenced by our results. Even the QPR game, if we’re honest that wasn’t *that* much between the two teams for large spells of that game. It looked like two teams low on confidence. Our two late goals put a nice layer of gloss on the result but QPR were still right in it until ELL scored.

Right now we are closer to Luton than we are Sunderland and Sheffield United. We have to be careful imo.

 

[Uncle_Marbles]

1 nowt defeat, possibly 2 nowt. Luton will be well up for it and bully us off the park. Boro are too nancy pancy tippy tappy

 

[Marvanelli]

My point is that people are slagging someone’s recruitment off and saying they’re a poor team when we’re only a couple of results ahead of them in the table

Yep, and whilst this is true, it's also true they have had a huge windfall from the PL and are still receiving parachute payments which means their spending should be much better than it is.

Their recruitment has been an absolute joke and there is no surprise they are where they are.

 

[viv_andersons_nana]

Yep, and whilst this is true, it's also true they have had a huge windfall from the PL and are still receiving parachute payments which means their spending should be much better than it is.

Their recruitment has been an absolute joke and there is no surprise they are where they are.

The majority of their windfall is being put towards a new stadium. If they’re as bad as you say they are, surely we ought to be much further ahead of them in the league table.

I don’t get the bitterness towards them. I’m not saying you personally but some posters seem to have real dislike of both Luton and Coventry. There’s an arrogance to that imo. Like people just seem to think we have a divine right to beat these teams and finish above them. How dare Luton reach the Premier League on a pittance.

And people slag Morris for diving, he’s one of hundreds of players who dive. I agree it’s sh*t and should be retrospectively punished BUT I’ve seen loads of Boro players diving down the years. Jones and McNair in the past 2-3 years have been appalling for it.

Personally I think what Luton did in winning promotion that season sort of shows up all the wastefulness, stupid decision making and reckless spending other clubs have resorted to down the years, including our own. And people don’t like it.

 

[Marvanelli]

The majority of their windfall is being put towards a new stadium. If they’re as bad as you say they are, surely we ought to be much further ahead of them in the league table.

I don’t get the bitterness towards them. I’m not saying you personally but some posters seem to have real dislike of both Luton and Coventry. There’s an arrogance to that imo. Like people just seem to think we have a divine right to beat these teams and finish above them. How dare Luton reach the Premier League on a pittance.

And people slag Morris for diving, he’s one of hundreds of players who dive. I agree it’s sh*t and should be retrospectively punished BUT I’ve seen loads of Boro players diving down the years. Jones and McNair in the past 2-3 years have been appalling for it.

Personally I think what Luton did in winning promotion that season sort of shows up all the wastefulness, stupid decision making and reckless spending other clubs have resorted to down the years, including our own. And people don’t like it.

But I do think we are much further ahead of them. The table might not show it in points, but look at our squad, recruitment, stats, football...no way should we be ahead of a team that has had the luxury of playing PL football only 6 months ago. The fact we're even ahead of them at this moment in time can either be seen as a credit to us, or the fact Luton have been a shambles. I think it's a bit of both, but more so the fact Luton have made some terrible decisions these last 12 months.

We don't have a divine right to beat anyone. I agree.

We have our fair share of divers. None worse than Ayling when he does the 'Ayling flop' at least once a game to win a FK and con the referee. The fact he even has this name says everything.

Luton winning promotion a couple of seasons ago was incredible. Things like this make football the best sport in the world. But since that day at Wembley, Luton's decisions have been so weak. And it's showing now.

 

[Muttley]

Ahem...

 

[LaPennaBianca]

Personally I think what Luton did in winning promotion that season sort of shows up all the wastefulness, stupid decision making and reckless spending other clubs have resorted to down the years, including our own. And people don’t like it.

This might the base of people weren't largely happy for Ipswich who won back to back promotions on v little money.

The way Luton play football is the biggest turn off. As is the fact that their abject performances are graded on a curve because of where they've come from.

Listening to everyone give them the metaphorical pat on the head for having a go against the big boys is fine when it's a cup game. When it's 38 league games it's just nauseating. Especially when what they play can barely be classed as football.

 

[MoggasDog]

Hopefully we push Luton further into a relegation scrap.

Last season they barely give themselves a chance of safety. Their recruitment was appalling. They were buying League 1 players, instead of giving themselves a chance of staying up.

Their squad is still poor now and there no surprise to see them at the bottom end of the table. I thin they have very little chance of getting in the top 6.

Saturday is a great opportunity to get ourselves right in the PO's and hopefully a few results of the teams above us go our way again.

I see it the other way. They were realistic and knew that they would have to spend £100m to stand a chance. Instead they used the prem money wisely and have decided to upgrade the ground etc. Thats something to show for the promotion that will last 100 years.
I suppose the sentimental thing about it all is that the lads that dragged them up from the non-league were given their moment in the sun.
If they had spunked millions on players they would have been saddled with debt.

 

[Marvanelli]

I see it the other way. They were realistic and knew that they would have to spend £100m to stand a chance. Instead they used the prem money wisely and have decided to upgrade the ground etc. Thats something to show for the promotion that will last 100 years.
I suppose the sentimental thing about it all is that the lads that dragged them up from the non-league were given their moment in the sun.
If they had spunked millions on players they would have been saddled with debt.

I agree in the sense they have pushed money into their stadium. They needed to, and it was an obvious decision to make and the right one too.

But they also spent money on transfers. The money they used on players was shambolic. They did similar to what we did when we got promoted under Karanka and bought quantity over quality.

The list of signings they made were:
Ogbene - Rotherham
Andersen - Barnsley
Chong - Birmingham
Nakamba - Villa
Giles - Wolves
Kaminski - Blackburn
Barkley - Nice
Brown - Stoke
Krul - Norwich
Mengi - Man Utd
Townsend - Everton
Holmes - Reading
Hashioka - Sint-Truiden
Blackledge - Brisbane Roar
Camis - Free agent
Harris - Reading.

Now come on, how many of those players would 'excite' you when getting promoted? How many of them would you even have in The Championship?

The recruitment since that day in Wembley has been terrible.

I totally understand using some of the PL money to redevelop and upgrade the stadium.

But surely, if they used some of the money more wisely in the transfer market, they may still be playing PL football. They went down by 6pts, which over a 38 game season isn't a huge amount to make up. Forest stayed up last season on 32pts. The safety score to stay up was quite low, which makes their decisions last season look even worse.

 

[Boro_Interlinked]

Well they don't travel well at the mo. Their apparent bullying has resulted in 1 away win in 6 and 4 losses. Maybe they are off the bully boil. Even bully's have to put effort into constant bullying. Hopefully we can tell our dad on them and when he's reprimanding them , our lads can put a couple in the net.

 

[equaliser]

Well they don't travel well at the mo. Their apparent bullying has resulted in 1 away win in 6 and 4 losses.

Anyone thinking what I'm thinking...

 

[uncle_rico]

...was a real turning point for us - in a bad way. We'd been on a brilliant run but the outside chance of closing the gap on Sheff U had gone, and Carrick decided to (we thought) rest Akpom and a couple of others. Luton had been grinding out 1-0 victories for months and after they luckily beat us that night would eventually pip us to third place. We fell away, losing to Rotherham, drawing at home to Coventry and then losing to them in the play-offs. Luton, historically. got promoted. Fair play to them, I thought they were a breath of fresh air in their one season up there - contrast to us under Karanka.

It would be nice if this Saturday's match could close that chapter, and we give them the beating we really should have given them. We were the better team that season - we scored 84 goals to their 57 - and of course, we had to semi-break up the side, while they went from strength to strength. I like Luton - working class town, good loyal fans, canny manager - but hopefully, it's our time now. There's nothing to fear in this league but we need to start putting a string of results together. If we do, we can have what we thought was in our grasp two seasons ago, but which started to fade from view that night...

Think we had a bit of an injury crisis too iirc. A half fit howson had to play centre back and we were missing a couple of others.

Our team that night...

Middlesbrough: Steffen, Giles, Lenihan, Bola, Dijksteel, Howson, Mowatt, Jones, Barlaser, Crooks, Archer.

Subs: Rodrigo Muniz, Roberts, Akpom, Hackney, Akono Bilongo, Stott, Sykes.


Edit: Could've sworn Howson started at CB, but looks like it was Lenihan and Bola.