v Luton Town (a) - 12/4/2025

[RoversTilliDie]

One fact that's been overlooked, it's the first time we've beaten Luton away. 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

11 hours ago, Gav said:

He was stood in the middle of the players at the end then walked off, how did you miss that?

 

Cant warm to the bloke.

[arbitro]

Not even a detour laden journey down could spoil the day for the travelling Rovers fans.

The players seemed to pick up from from where they were at the end of the Sheffield Wednesday game as we started with some intensity and purpose. From the confident start we made my feelings that we were going to get something grew and grew and truthfully the goal didn't come to me as a great surprise.

The counter attacking football we were playing was, from a tactical point of view ideal. This was built on a strong defence with the two midfield 'screens' in front of them giving Luton hardly anything in the first half. In real time I didn't appreciate how good the finish actually was. Yuki almost turned side on to flick the ball into the corner. It was almost like a pressure valve had been opened as we went ahead for the first time in ages.

The sending off (ridiculously harsh I thought) galvanised us and two sensible substitutions and a slight tactical tweak made us more solid as we had something to defend. And defend we did as tackles, blocks, headers and size 10's saw us through despite the pressure Luton put us under.

There were lots of really good performances but Dolan showed what an asset he can be. His prodigious work rate, defensive diligence and eye for a counter attack featured heavily in the win. I'll forgive him for being greedy and not passing to Gueye who would have had a gap in close to the end.

I said on Tuesday that you could see some confidence returning to the players and today that carried on. I know it's only one win but I can give Ismael some praise here by saying it was a Eustace like performance that got us the win and the most pleasant journey home from an away match in a long time.

 

 

[Old Codger]

Well done sirs. An object lesson in dealing with a burst pipe.

WHAT A PITY YOU LET IT HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE.....

End of season, slight upswing in form way too late to do anything but rub salt in the open and suppurating wounds. 

VENKYS WAGGOTT PASHA GESTEDE WANKERS OUT.

[Plastics]

One thing about how bad the referee was is that he actually gave Travis a second yellow straight after Montgomery's for grabbing his shoulder but then either bottled it or didn't realise he'd had already booked him. Either way a shambles. Never a second yellow for the young lad (never saw his first). FlashScore had us down as two reds for about thirty seconds to a minute but once it rectified I thought it had just glitched. Upon watching the highlights that Rovers stuck up, you can see him produce the yellow, then the red, then show the yellow to Travis after Trav makes contact with him.

 

Happy we won and happy the players celebrated the goal so genuinely. That's about as much positivity that I can take from the current moment.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Thought it was harsh, especially for a second yellow personally. We've had much worse ones against us not given.

Their guy made a real meal of it but our player put a hand on him. However light the hand was you’re giving the ref a decision to make and you’re already on a card. Like most modern full backs, they play too near to the centre halves were a good long diagonal pass will catch you out.

[47er]

7 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Thought it was harsh, especially for a second yellow personally. We've had much worse ones against us not given.

Absolutely agree. The Luton player going down like he'd been shot didn't help.

He was more worthy of a yellow than Montgomery (or an oscar!)

[chaddyrovers]

The team stuck together yesterday. They fight, show grit and defending very well. 

Ismael changed the formation after we brought on Forshaw to back 3 with Ribeiro and Dolan has wing back and 3 centre midfield with Ohashi or Gueye up front. Show some tactical awareness so that is a plus. Its his win and he got the gameplan against Luton spot on. 

I am very surprised how poor Luton has been this season, I tipped them to win the league but at no point have they looked like it. They look the shadow of the team that played in PL last season. Matt Bloomfield has a massive summer ahead there whatever league they are in 

1 hour ago, RoversTilliDie said:

One fact that's been overlooked, it's the first time we've beaten Luton away. 

I mentioned it yesterday, our first win there in 23 away league games at Luton

[Paul Mellelieu]

2 hours ago, RoversTilliDie said:

One fact that's been overlooked, it's the first time we've beaten Luton away. 

In the league.

[joey_big_nose]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Their guy made a real meal of it but our player put a hand on him. However light the hand was you’re giving the ref a decision to make and you’re already on a card. Like most modern full backs, they play too near to the centre halves were a good long diagonal pass will catch you out.

Agreed the winger was well past him and he pulled his arm, it was a yellow card. But then there were a lot of similar infractions the ref didnt give cards for, so a confusing referee performance.

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Their guy made a real meal of it but our player put a hand on him. However light the hand was you’re giving the ref a decision to make and you’re already on a card. Like most modern full backs, they play too near to the centre halves were a good long diagonal pass will catch you out.

Taking the incident to the absolute letter of the law you could find a yellow card but I see many, many incidents where referees are showing much more tolerance on second cautions. I saw one the night before when Cullen committed the worst foul of the match (Burnley v Norwich) but he didn't get a second yellow. Jack Wilshere, one of the Norwich coaches was actually cautioned for his protestations.

Yesterday's referee was the epitome of inconsistency and angered players, supporters and officials of both teams.

[jim mk2]

Mentioned it last night but would like to highlight again the huge shift that Dolan put in. He's not my favourite player and I've seen him have some real stinkers but he worked his socks off to plug the gap after Montgomerie's sending off. He should have passed to Gueye in the breakaway though - and that's why he will always be a flawed player.

Talking of Gueye I thought his body language was poor and he looked like he was sulking for not being in the starting XI. He had his own selfish moment too when he did 2 or 3 stepovers and shot for goal when he should have passed to Rovers players in better positions.

Obviously a pleasing result and it was well deserved but, oh dear, we're still a very hard team to watch and it's also important to remember we were only the width of the woodwork away from a 2-1 defeat

[philipl]

2 hours ago, Plastics said:

One thing about how bad the referee was is that he actually gave Travis a second yellow straight after Montgomery's for grabbing his shoulder but then either bottled it or didn't realise he'd had already booked him. Either way a shambles. Never a second yellow for the young lad (never saw his first). FlashScore had us down as two reds for about thirty seconds to a minute but once it rectified I thought it had just glitched. Upon watching the highlights that Rovers stuck up, you can see him produce the yellow, then the red, then show the yellow to Travis after Trav makes contact with him.

 

Happy we won and happy the players celebrated the goal so genuinely. That's about as much positivity that I can take from the current moment.

I too thought we were down to 9 until I realised Trav was still on the park.

[arbitro]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

Mentioned it last night but would like to highlight again the huge shift that Dolan put in. He's not my favourite player and I've seen him have some real stinkers but he worked his socks off to plug the gap after Montgomerie's sending off. He should have passed to Gueye in the breakaway though - and that's why he will always be a flawed player.

Talking of Gueye I thought his body language was poor and he looked like he was sulking for not being in the starting XI. He had his own selfish moment too when he did 2 or 3 stepovers and shot for goal when he should have passed to Rovers players in better positions.

Obviously a pleasing result and it was well deserved but, oh dear, we're still a very hard team to watch and it's also important to remember we were only the width of the woodwork away from a 2-1 defeat

We lost a lot of industry when Ohashi went off as he was almost a one man press working across the Luton defence. In comparison Gueye seemed lazy although defensively from set pieces he added something.

Ohashi had his arm in a sling after the game but there didn't seem to be any undue concern.

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

 

[RoversTilliDie]

Let's not carried away with the result, we beat a poor Luton team. Millwall will be a lot more difficult on Good Friday, there still in with a shout of the play offs.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

41 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Mentioned it last night but would like to highlight again the huge shift that Dolan put in. He's not my favourite player and I've seen him have some real stinkers but he worked his socks off to plug the gap after Montgomerie's sending off. He should have passed to Gueye in the breakaway though - and that's why he will always be a flawed player.

Talking of Gueye I thought his body language was poor and he looked like he was sulking for not being in the starting XI. He had his own selfish moment too when he did 2 or 3 stepovers and shot for goal when he should have passed to Rovers players in better positions.

Obviously a pleasing result and it was well deserved but, oh dear, we're still a very hard team to watch and it's also important to remember we were only the width of the woodwork away from a 2-1 defeat

If he could sort his decision making out he’d be a much better player.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

45 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Taking the incident to the absolute letter of the law you could find a yellow card but I see many, many incidents where referees are showing much more tolerance on second cautions. I saw one the night before when Cullen committed the worst foul of the match (Burnley v Norwich) but he didn't get a second yellow. Jack Wilshere, one of the Norwich coaches was actually cautioned for his protestations.

Yesterday's referee was the epitome of inconsistency and angered players, supporters and officials of both teams.

I was watching a game the other day in the FA Cup with one of the Premier League teams and every time one of their players lost a close duel for the ball their first reaction was to grab their opponents arm. They must have done it a dozen times at least.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

21 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

 

Finger nail ?

[RTM08]

37 minutes ago, RoversTilliDie said:

Let's not carried away with the result, we beat a poor Luton team. Millwall will be a lot more difficult on Good Friday, there still in with a shout of the play offs.

We beat a poor Luton team, and did basically nothing of note all game. Yeah, they obviously had the man advantage for a little while but this was still a relegation level performance against a team that look like they might struggle even in League One. I'm not buying into the narrative I keep seeing on social media that this is some kind of miracle turnaround following the Sheff Weds second half. 

[KentExile]

Not sure if it has been mentioned elsewhere.  Ohashi seen after the game in a sling and will have a scan on his elbow to see if it needs treatment etc

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/25086031.blackburn-rovers-takeaways-hard-fought-victory-luton/

[arbitro]

8 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

We beat a poor Luton team, and did basically nothing of note all game. Yeah, they obviously had the man advantage for a little while but this was still a relegation level performance against a team that look like they might struggle even in League One. I'm not buying into the narrative I keep seeing on social media that this is some kind of miracle turnaround following the Sheff Weds second half. 

Bloody hell mate after the run we've been on can you not just enjoy the win.

I'm beginning to think that some are disappointed we actually won yesterday.

[roversfan99]

Come on, I am not having that anyone is disappointed that we won. 

Understand why people feel so flat. We have won a game long after a significant tumble from being in the play offs to totally out of contention with a number of games left, accelerated by the appointment of Ismael. A win is always satisfying but it does have a feeling of far too little, too late.

Regarding the performance, it was very much a smash and grab. It was a back to basics, backs to the wall performance but its fair to suggest that going forward we were very poor in the main but thankfully Ohashi took the one reasonable chance we did create superbly. 

[arbitro]

5 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Come on, I am not having that anyone is disappointed that we won. 

Understand why people feel so flat. We have won a game long after a significant tumble from being in the play offs to totally out of contention with a number of games left, accelerated by the appointment of Ismael. A win is always satisfying but it does have a feeling of far too little, too late.

Regarding the performance, it was very much a smash and grab. It was a back to basics, backs to the wall performance but its fair to suggest that going forward we were very poor in the main but thankfully Ohashi took the one reasonable chance we did create superbly. 

Some of the posts I have seen are certainly leaning towards disappointment that we won.

Does it matter if it was backs to the wall or whatever? On Tuesday I saw signs in the second half of players gaining confidence after an awful run. Yesterday the confidence levels once again increased and I thought we were good value for the win.

We had ten men for over forty minutes so of course it was backs to the wall - what did you expect?

We could have actually scored twice more on the counter in the second half.

I'm one of the first to criticise when we are poor but yesterday we were anything but that.