Phill’s Diary – Burnley (a) – 12th January 2024

Phill opens his diary to look ahead to the hastily rearranged match against Burnley

It seems like an age since we hosted Burnley, back in early October. There have been many changes for the Hatters since then, chiefly Ross Barkley running our midfield.

That game was horrible in the way we suffered defeat, working so hard to get the equaliser, only to be sucker-punched through an admittedly excellent goal only minutes later, through Bruun Larsen. It gave Burnley their first victory of the season, one of their 3 victories they have this season as it stands.

I try to be quite diplomatic in these diary pieces, but I don’t think I can downplay the importance of Friday night’s game. Simply, it’s massive and Luton need to pull off a result like we did away to Sheffield United on Boxing Day; whatever works, get the 3 points and then let’s kick on into the tail end of the season. Have no doubt about it, Burnley will know that their season hinges on success in this fixture too, they’ll be looking at the likes of Brentford and Forest sitting 8/9points above them if Luton inflict defeat on them, with Luton themselves leapfrogging Everton into the safety of 17th position.

Luton’s last game was an FA cup tie with Bolton, a game which was not at all ideal; whilst we should have walked away with victory and a place outright in the 4th round (note the blatant penalty on Doughty), we ultimately didn’t break down Bolton and were largely restricted to shots from outside the area. It’s going to be interesting to see how we fare against Burnley, who have been steadfast in their approach this season, sticking closely to their values in a possession based game, but ultimately having an incredibly tough time against Premier League opponents.

I’m hopeful that their approach will suit ours, giving us chance to use our pace and counterattacking skills, but equally I hope the game isn’t as lopsided as the reverse fixture was, that first half at Kenilworth Road was a game where I still can’t fathom just how much space the Burnley midfield created. I don’t think that’ll happen with Barkley and Lokonga in the centre of our midfield, remember Pelly and Marv were our centre midfield pairing for the home game and were still settling into PL life.

In terms of team news, we’ll be without our natural RWB option in Issa Kabore who is on International Duty at the African Cup of Nations. We could go very left field and start the returning Fred Onyedinma at RWB, but I think Rob Edwards would probably feel more inclined to trust Alfie Doughty on his weaker side, giving the LWB position to either Giles or Bell, also Fred has a knock. It depends if Rob prefers Giles to Andersen I guess. We could even be fortunate enough to call on the services of Reece Burke, which would be really handy in giving our backline a bit of depth; with Issa and Tom Lockyer unavailable, we’re a little bit stretched at the moment, despite the absolutely excellent form of Teden Mengi and Gabe Osho. By the way Gabe, sign a longer deal would you…pretty please!

Attacking wise, it was great to see Carlton Morris get a start last weekend, but for this league match I would have expected us to return to the trusted front 3 in Adebayo, Brown and Townsend Sr, however Brown is out through suspension, meaning Ogbene or Chong may get the chance from the start. Whoever misses out on the start, will instead come off the bench and provide energy, perhaps alongside Jordan Clark who impressed during his run out this past weekend.

Anyway, to those of you going up to Turf Moor, I hope you have an excellent night under the lights and get to see us collect 3 points; that journey and the timing of it has rendered a number of fans unable to attend, so please get behind the lads on behalf of all of those in freezing Bedfordshire watching on TV. Phill