The match report is in from our man at Kenilworth Road, Nick Ames. That’s my cue to go and have a lie-down in a darkened room. Thanks for your company, correspondence and quips. I should be saying “see you tomorrow” for the fifth day of the Test match, but something went slightly awry with England, who lost by 434 runs. Manchester United are sometimes like that too, though not today. I’ll be back on Friday for the next Test. Do drop by tomorrow, when Rob Smyth will be bringing you Everton v Crystal Palace.
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Hojlund is asked if the deflection off his chest that brought the second goal. was intentional. You may be able to guess the answer. “One hundred per cent!” he says. “Just flick it in. I was surprised, that was such a good goal, to be fair… At the moment, I have a lot of confidence, so it goes in.”
Jamie Redknapp asks if he ever doubted himself when he failed to score in his first 14 Premier League games. “No, I never doubted myself, though of course you can be a little bit down when you don’t score… I always believed in myself, I knew it was a matter of time – learning [about] my team mates, getting the understanding, where to position myself with the right-back, the left-back, Rashy, Garna, Bruno.”
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Rasmus Hojlund, not content with grabbing the headlines, is ambling over to join the Sky pundits. Something he may one day do permanently, as he’s a fluent talker. “A good beginning,” he says. “Two good and fast goals. Then we drop off a little bit, we get unfocused, they get one back and then we know with this crowd and this pitch, 2-1 is always a dangerous result. Then we create a lot of chances in the second half – we just need to score. A bit annoyed about that.”
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“Styles is in the stands?” says Peter Oh. I feel a quip coming on. “United may be enjoying a run of good form, but the club is still going in One Direction.” Good line! But the thing about this United side is that they’re often going in more than one direction at once.
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This game could easily have been another of Luton’s 4-4s. United’s forwards were clean through at least three times, and Luton had umpteen shots (22) without getting enough on target (four). There was too much happening to allow me to open the mail, so if you’ve written in, I can only apologise on behalf of the Premier League. It’s too much fun.
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Both teams stay put in the table, as they had to. United are now only three points below the top five with 44 from 25 games. They have 14 wins, the same as Spurs, who stay above them on the strength of three more draws. Luton, who have now lost 14 times, miss the chance to breathe down the necks of Palace, but they’re still one point clear of Everton and the bottom three.
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The home fans have been just as admirable as their team. “We’re staying up,” they chant, as the players applaud them.
So United secure their fourth league win in a row. But secure is not the word… After racing out of the blocks, United faded badly, then revived in the second half. They ended up playing better for 50 minutes without several senior players – Shaw, Casemiro, Maguire – than they had for half an hour with them. Luton were admirably spirited but just not clinical enough.
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FULL TIME! Luton 1-2 Man United
And that’s that!
Barkley hits the bar!
90 min Barkley beats Rashford to the ball and launches a fine header, but it brushes the top of the bar.
90+3 min Fernandes tries a long shot, much to the chagrin of Gary Neville. Luton surge forward and win one last corner. They should get one more chance.
90+3 min United counter yet again. Garnacho to Fernandes and back to Garnacho, who can only win a corner from a tight angle.
90+2 min Corner to Luton, but this makeshift United defence is tall. Headed away for another corner.
90 min There will be four more minutes. The home fans were expecting at least eight.
89 min Rashford sends Garnacho away, and suddenly United’s new centre-forward is Jonny Evans. Garnacho can’t quite find him, perhaps because he can’t quite believe his eyes.
88 min Rashford wins a free kick. Fernandez takes his time, then lofts it towards Varane, who commits a foul. Somehow the ball comes to Fernandes again, in a great position at inside-right, but his shot goes skimming past the far post.
86 min It doesn’t take much to get Erik ten Hag worried when United are a goal up. He takes off Hojlund and sends on Sofyan Amrabat to shore up the midfield. That probably means Rashford going up front, though the forwards have been interchangeable on the counter for some time.
85 min Garnacho races upfield and takes far too long to pass to Rashford, allowing Luton to clear. Up the other end, Luton have a long shot.
84 min Townsend saunters in from the right and wins a corner. Rob Edwards, by the way, sent on another sub just now – Berry for Doughty.
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83 min The camera finds Harry Styles, paying close attention, next to Mick Harford. A contrast in Styles.
81 min Townsend wriggles away from Lindelof, though it comes to nothing. Lindelof, nobody’s idea of a left-back, gets a booking for a foul on Townsend just before that.
80 min The chance-fest continues as Varane sends McTominay through, but he commits a foul in the ensuing tangle.
79 min Rashford races down the right and finds Garnacho, who cuts back for Hojlund. His shot is not up to his recent high standards and Kaminski saves.
76 min The free kick is curled in by Doughty, headed away by United, but then there’s a shot from Osho near the penalty spot, defused by Varane and Fernandes with a pair of desperate blocks.
74 min There are more attacks in this match than there is time to describe them. A few minutes ago Mainoo went on a slalom, much like at Molineux, without the end result. Now he’s going in the book for what may have been a very good sliding tackle.
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73 min A Luton attack promises much but delivers nothing as Doughty’s cross is overhit.
@TimdeLisle Nobody mentioning how poor Bruno has been for a few games now. It's like he's suddenly got his boots on the wrong feet. Shows how little depth United has that it's almost impossible to give him a rest.
— Roca Verde (@RocaVerdeClimb) February 18, 2024
71 min Fine save by Kaminski! From Fernandes’ free kick, which was shaping to dip inside Luton’s right-hand post.
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71 min United escape and Rashford bears down on Townsend, who responds with a foul. An early yellow for him.
70 min Luton enjoy some advanced possession for the first time in this half. United’s defending is scrappy but effective.
69 min Two subs for Luton: Woodrow off, Townsend on, and more surprisingly Chong off, Clark on.
66 min Big, big chance for Garnacho! Sent clean through by a long ball from Rashford, he went this way, that way, and eventually nowhere. He hides his face in his hands.
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65 min Chance for Ogbene! Long range, firm hit, but straight at Onana.
63 min Another shot from Garnacho, spinning onto his left foot and aiming too high. United are playing so much better now, partly because Kobbie Mainoo is playing better. In the first half he kept being exposed by Chong, his fellow United alumnus. Since moving back to replace Casemiro, Mainoo has been far more commanding.
61 min Chance for Garnacho! Fernandes drills a corner to him on the edge of the box. If he could hit it first time, he might well be celebrating now, but he has to take a touch and his shot is straight at Kaminski.
60 min Big chance for Fernandes! United put together a superb counter as Hojlund holds the ball up and turns it round the corner to Garnacho. Fernandes is through, round the keeper, placing his shot – only to be stopped by a magnificent sliding block from Lokonga.
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60 min Luton’s turn to get forward, after some neat passing in midfield. The ball falls to Barkley, whose attempted screamer is too high.
58 min United pour forward again. McTominay to Hojlund to Rashford to Fernandes, who scuffs his shot.
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57 min Chance for Rashford! A powerful hit with his left foot, well saved by Kaminski.
54 min One of the pitch-side microphones is next to the kind of fan you never want to be next to – the guy who won’t shut up. He called Rashford “a fucking cheat” in the first half, and now he’s said something else I didn’t quite catch, which brings an apology from Sky. He should just join in the chants, which are top-class.
53 min Onana takes his time over the free kick, attracting hoots of derision from the crowd.
50 min Half-chance for Chong, with a header, bvyut the flag was up. “It’s just frantic,” says Gary Neville.
49 min Chance for Dalot! Racing into the centre-forward position, only to be too loose with his touch, perhaps because he’s not a centre-forward. Up the other end, Barkley has a shot saved by Onana. The second half has started almost as crazily as the first.
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48 min Chance for Fernandes! But his shot is blocked .. by McTominay.
47 min Rashford whips the ball into Hojlund, who holds it up for McTominay – who isn’t on the right wavelength yet. Mainoo has taken Casemiro’s place in the pivot.
46 min United kick off and the ball bobbles about in the air for a bit.
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Yes, Casemiro is off, and so is Maguire
Erik ten Hag is making two more substitutions on top of the Lindelof-Shaw one. Scott McTominay replaces Casemiro and Jonny Evans replaces Maguire.
“With Harry Styles in the crowd,” says Jim Hinks, “it got me thinking: how long before he supplants ex-United midfielder Norbert Peter ‘Nobby’ Stiles as cockney rhyming slang for piles?”
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“Onana,” says Pramith Pillai. “As long as we have him as a goalkeeper, I will always doubt our defence. Flaps around a lot.”
“Twice now,” says Adam Roberts, “the referee hasn’t given a second deserved yellow – Woodrow on Maguire as well as Casemiro on Barkley.”
“Actually,” says Pete in Copenhagen, “I believe Christian Eriksen to be a better player than Casemiro. Just not been given too many chances since joining Man U. As a Dane, I hope he finds another club now. Bring him on please…”
“That chant by the Luton fans after Casemiro scythed down Barkley – ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ – was wholly inaccurate,” says JR in Illinois. “Coote knew exactly what he was doing: not giving Casemiro the second yellow he fully deserved because he didn’t want to ‘ruin the game’. So bad.”
“The keeper has his eyes closed!” says Richard Gibbs, inspecting our picture of the Luton goal. “At yesterday’s game at Pittodrie the Hibs keeper showed how to deal with a forward running through... punch the ball onto his head and follow through to catch him on the head.”
And here’s Simon McMahon, picking up on the post from 43 min. “Substitute ‘years’ for ‘minutes’ in the Gary Neville quote,” he says, “and you’d still not be wrong, Tim. Sorry, but like a group of 18-year-olds in Wetherspoon’s, I’m not one to miss a cheap shot.”
“Afternoon,” says Stephen Carr. “Man United really do not know how to control a game, do they?”
HALF-TIME! Luton 1-2 Man United
Well, that was a half of two halves. For a quarter of an hour United were lording it, with two goals from the suddenly unstoppable Rasmus Hojlund. But Luton were never cowed, Carlton Morris replied with a header, and since then the Hatters have had a hatful of chances. Luke Shaw has already bowed out and Casemiro – on a yellow card and a final warning – may have to follow suit. From here on in, anything at all could happen.
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45+3 min Chance for Garnacho! Blocked.
Shaw goes off!
45+2 min As Doughty misses a chance with a tentative right-foot shot, Erik ten Hag sends on a sub – Victor Lindelof for Luke Shaw. Last week the same thing happened at half-time; this time, they can’t even wait that long.
45 min There will be four extra minutes. Rashford goes down after getting a hand to the head in the Luton box, but he’s up again soon enough.
45 min United, rattled, keep playing the wrong pass, or the right pass in the wrong way. Shaw feeds Rashford, who tries to return the favour but overhits the through ball.
44 min Doughty thumps the free kick into the wall.
43 min Morris bears down on Maguire, who has to foul him, and has to go into the book. The move was constructed by Barkley, who skipped past Casemiro, knowing he couldn’t be fouled. “Bit of a mess, Manchester United in the last ten minutes,” says Gary Neville.
41 min Christian Eriksen is warming up, as is Sofyan Amrabat. If you could just put them together, they’d make a fine replacement for Casemiro.
39 min Casemiro flirts with a red card! He fouls Barkley and the Luton players surround the ref. Maguire, United’s shop steward, gets in there too, Casemiro ends up yelling at Garnacho, when he should be thanking his lucky stars.
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38 min Before that chance, a Luton attack had been smothered by the unlikely figure of Rashford, racing back, completing a tackle and then starting something for United, which came to nothing. Luton are playing as if they were 2-1 up.
36 min Chance for Luton! It’s Morris again, shooting through the legs of Varane and not far past the post.
35 min Yet another Luton attack is halted by the flag going up for offside.
33 min Morris goes down and that’s a yellow card for Casemiro, to add to his impressive collection. Before that, a Luton attack was snuffed out by Dalot with the sliding block that has become his signature.
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31 min Luton have secured that record I mentioned several hours ago, scoring in 12 successive top-flight games for the first time ever. More importantly, they’ve got right back into this game. Since the goal, they’ve been the better team.
30 min Chance for Luton! Maguire presents a gift to Barkley, who sends Woodrow through – but the shot is easily blocked. From the resulting corner, Doughty has a free header, only to send it into Row H.
28 min Luton win a free kick on the left wing and then hang around the United box for the first time. When United finally clear, they have a two-on-two at the other end, but the ball out to the right from Fernandes sends Garnacho too far wide.
25 min Morris, the main man for Luton as well as the captain, now plays a fine ball out to the right, but Luke Shaw deals with it. United are about 20pc better in defence when Shaw is fit, and more than that in attack
24 min … And yet the game is wide open. A cross comes in from Doughty on the Luton left and Morris has another header, over the bar this time.
21 min You know the way United’s midfield was being sliced open for most of last autumn? That’s what keeps happening to Luton here.
21 min A free kick for Luton 35 yards out, but they can’t make anything of it.
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20 min United are doing the thing their fans so often implore of them: attack, attack, attack. Garnacho blows a good chance to set Fernandes up for a screamer.
17 min The first yellow of the game goes to Cauley Woodrow, for not getting 10 yards from a free kick. There could then be another for Rashford, who commits a foul in anger after being clattered in the Luton box.
Carlton Morris scored with a header, his third in successive games. But it was mainly thanks to Tahith Chong, who started the move and supplied the assist by going into the inside-left channel, for about the fourth time in the game. He had a hand from a deflection, which made the ball loop up kindly, but Morris was brave. At this rate, the game will end 6-12.
GOAL! Luton 1-2 Man United (Morris 14)
Game on!
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12 min A glimmer for Luton as a fine long ball picks out Ogbene, racing in from the right. Like Hojlund just now, he takes the ball on his chest; unlike him, he just helps it into the hands of the keeper.
10 min Another chance for Rashford! He picks up the ball from Maguire on halfway, keeps on running and shoots from the D again. Maguire had kept on running too, improbably, and may feel the return pass was the better option. United have started like a top team: the question is, can they play like one for 90 minutes?
9 min Luton again bustle into the box. They are not losing through lack of spirit.
It was Hojlund – with his chest, swivelling to steer Garnacho’s wayward shot into the net after a United corner. And it did look deliberate.
GOAL! Luton 0-2 Man United (Garnacho or Hojlund 6)
And another!
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4 min Chance for Rashford! He drifted into space in the D and was easily fed by Garnacho. His shot was on target but easily batted away by Kaminski.
3 min Undaunted, Luton get forward again, but Tahith Chong overhits his cross after doing well to reach the byline.
Casemiro hoofed the ball forward, and a poor square pass let Hojlund in. He took his time, went round the keeper, seemed to have gone too wide, but put his shot away like a man who had scored five in successive league games. Now six – the youngest player to do so in the Premier League, beating Joe Willock’s record.
GOAL! Luton 0-1 Man United (Hojliund 1)
That man again.
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1 min Luton kick off, and get into the box. But…
A late change for Luton
Elijah Adebayo picked up an injury in the warm-up, so he drops out of the starting XI. His place at centre-forward is taken by Cauley Woodrow, whose last Premier League start came (for Fulham) in 2014. He scored that day, albeit for a team that had already been relegated.
Now it’s Erik ten Hag’s turn to talk. Emma Saunders asks him about Scott McTominay being on the bench. “He deserves to play, but I cannot line up 12. Definitely he is one always in my mind during the week, how can we put him in the first XI. Hard choice, but as you know he is Laos very good coming from the bench.”
How do Luton make it difficult for teams that come here? “Not only here… The whole season, they play very good, and the last weeks they are really making steps forward, so we have to play our best football… It needs 100pc focus – otherwise we have a big problem.”
Rob Edwards is talking to Sky now, with Tom Lockyer next to him. Asked about last weekend’s home defeat by Sheffield United, Edwards is understandably keen to move onto the present. “In a strange way,” he says, “this game probably suits us more. It won’t take much for the fans to be up for it.”
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Tom Lockyer has been talking about the moment when football really was a matter of life and death.
In today’s other game, Brighton have just scored their fifth. Poor old Sheffield United, reduced to ten men by a shocker of a tackle from Mason Holgate, now have a goal difference of minus 43. Do join Dominic Booth for the gory details.
Pre-match reading
For his column in the Observer, Jonathan Wilson has been pondering United’s improvement and especially their forward line. It may be the only football piece you ever read that contains the phrase “a dour husband”.
Teams in full
Luton (probable 3-4-2-1) Kaminski; Mengi, Osho, Bell; Chong, Lokonga, Barkley, Doughty; Ogbene, Morris; Adebayo.
Subs: Krul, Burke, Kaboré, Mpanzu, Berry, Nelson, Townsend, Clark, Woodrow.
Man United (probable 4-1-2-3) Onana; Dalot, Varane, Maguire, Shaw; Casemiro; Mainoo, Fernandes; Garnacho, Hojlund, Rashford.
Subs: Bayindir, Lindelof, Evans, Amrabat, Eriksen, McTominay, Antony, Amad, Forson.
Referee David Coote.
Teams in brief: Shaw starts, and so does Chong
Luke Shaw has been passed fit, so Erik ten Hag sticks with his settled first XI (bar the injured Lisandro Martinez). Rob Edwards gives a start to two Man United alumni, with Tahith Chong joining Teden Mengi. Andros Townsend is on the bench.
Preamble
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to what should be a tasty Sunday teatime. It’s Kenilworth Road, Luton v Man United, 17th v sixth, David v Goliath. It’s a Premier League game that feels more like a cup tie.
When it comes to form, there’s not much between the two sides. In the table for the past two months, as of this morning, United were sixth and Luton were eighth. Both clubs have been making things happen at both ends of the pitch. United’s cumulative score in the league since 18 December is 15-12, while Luton’s is 16-13. The form book is telling us this will be a nice open game that ends two-and-a-half all.
United have a record to preserve: they are formidable in February, unbeaten in 25 league games since Valentine’s Day 2018, when they were still trying to make things work with Jose Mourinho. Luton have a record to claim: after scoring in every league match since mid-November, they are poised to go 12 top-flight games without drawing a blank for the first time in their history.
The last opponents to keep a clean sheet against them in the league were … Man United, with a 1-0 win in the reverse fixture. The winner was scored by Victor Lindelof, who will probably only start today as a makeshift left-back, if Luke Shaw is unfit. Andros Townsend might like the sound of that.
Neither side can move up or down the table today, but there’s still more than enough at stake. Erik ten Hag needs a win to stay within shouting distance of Spurs, Villa and the Champions League. Rob Edwards could do with one to pull away from Everton and put pressure on Palace. And while United’s front three have finally come together to pose a consistent threat, Luton have worked out how to score goals against their biggers and betters, bagging four against Brighton and Newcastle and even managing three against Arsenal.
Kick-off is at 4.30pm GMT and I’ll be back soon with the teams. Meanwhile, here’s a face in the crowd.
Good to see you, @Harry_Styles! 👋pic.twitter.com/UrwIT2AeT1
— Luton Town FC (@LutonTown) February 18, 2024
