Luton Town Season Preview: meeting expectations

There are no more excuses for Luton. They have missed out on promotion in the last three seasons, with the arguable caveats of just returning to the league in  14/15, a high turnover of players in 15/16 and having their closest attempt yet last term. Is this finally their year? The Football Lab talks to supporter Dave O’Flanagan to get the lowdown from Kenilworth Road.

You finished with a respectable 77 points last season but were denied promotion by a narrow semi-final defeat to Blackpool. How do you reflect on the season?

Ultimately, last season was a failure. When Carlisle sold Charlie Wyke in January, the 3rd automatic promotion spot was well within our sights.  However, a season-ending injury to Cameron McGeehan, coupled with Christian Walton being recalled and not being replaced adequately cost us. Even going into the play offs, I was reasonably confident however an out of the ordinary defensive horror show cost us.

Danny Hylton scored 27 goals last year, but you also had Isaac Vassell chipping in with 14. With James Collins and Elliott Lee joining you’ll surely have plenty of firepower up top…

As anyone who follows me on Twitter, I’m not exactly shy of an opinion, and although a tad biased, I believe that the strike quartet of Collins, Hylton, Vassell and Lee is as good as any you’ll find in League Two, and arguably better than a lot in League One.  I think it’s incredibly tough on Vassell that he’ll arguably be starting the season as 4th choice after a breakthrough year, but to replace Jack Marriott with Collins and Lee is a good deal in anyone’s book.

Equally though McGeehan, who has left for Barnsley, was your only midfielder to net more than twice. In a goalscoring sense, is more needed from Pelly Ruddock M’Panzu and others?

Simply put, yes. Although he does have a magic left foot (I’m not just saying that cos he follows me and he’ll see this!) the fact Sheehan outscored our other midfielders says a lot about how much we missed McGeehan.  I don’t have the exact figures but on top of the lack of goals, none of them had anything to write home about in terms of creating goals, in a way that someone like Plymouth’s Graham Carey would have done.  Talking of creating goals, that leads nicely on to my next question….

Andrew Shinnie can be a creative player when he’s given a run of games in the hole. Do you expect him to get that at Luton?

Definitely.  Although I do feel the midfield need to score more as well, I don’t think they necessarily need to hit the heights that McGeehan was t reaching, where he was on course for 20+ goals before his injury.  We’ve struggled to break teams down in the past, particularly when sides have come to Kenilworth Road and put men behind the ball, so hopefully Shinnie can help unlock those rigid defences.  I would like to see Shinnie given a lot of freedom to help him prosper and supply goals for Hylton and co

Your headline signing of the summer is Alan McCormack from Brentford. He should give you some muscle and experience in midfield…

Although at 33 he’s probably only a short term fix, I – like many other Hatters – was absolutely delighted with the signing of McCormack.  We severely lacked a bit of bite in midfield last season, with the only player really fitting the ball Jonathan Smith almost frozen out of the team and ultimately transfer listed at the end of the season.  I think having that spine in the middle of the park will allow the more forward-thinking midfielders, such as Shinnie and Olly Lee to thrive.

You missed Walton after he left in March. Though you’ve haven’t managed to bring him back, could Marek Stech or James Shea be a good replacement?

Although it was slightly disappointing when it dawned that Walton wasn’t coming back, that was soon put to one side with the arrival of Marek Stech.  Highly rated from his time at Yeovil helping them to the Championship, I feel he is arguably the best keeper in the division.  With James Shea coming to us on the back of nearly 40 appearances for Wimbledon in League 1 last season, it’s definitely an area that we have massively strengthened this campaign.

I would also like to extend my best wishes to former ‘keeper Craig King in his future endeavours.  Although I didn’t think he was ready to challenge just yet, he didn’t look out of place when he featured in the Checkatrade Trophy.

James Justin looked bright in the play-offs. Do you expect him to compete with Jack Stacey for the right-back spot?

I think that will be a healthy battle. When the most “underwhelming” of your 7 signings is a man who reached the L2 play off final last year, that is testament to the business we’ve done this summer. That being said, I think Stacey’s utility value will probably see him start on the bench initially, and will probably provide cover to prevent Justin being burnt out.

Scott Cuthbert and Alan Sheehan struggled to handle the ‘popular’ Mark Cullen against Blackpool. Do you think you’ll bring in another centre-back?

I don’t think it’s as necessary as some fans are making out.  We had one of the best defences in the League throughout the season despite our ‘keeper issues and it was just massively unfortunate that the one game it all went pear-shaped was a season-defining game.  Even now, I think you look at the goals Blackpool scored over the two games, and you can probably put most, if not all of them, down to defensive errors.

That being said, with money from McGeehan and Marriott coming in, as well as further sell on’s from Andre Gray’s progression since leaving, I think it’s certainly something to consider especially if we are going to go with the 3-5-2/5-3-2 next season.  We’ve been linked with Aaron Pierre of Wycombe but that seems to have died down now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nathan Jones used the loan market or splashed the cash for what could be the final piece in the promotion jigsaw.

Dan Potts has signed a new deal. Do you expect him to be your first choice left-back?

I think Potts and Jack Senior will be a closely contest battled throughout the season.  Potts will probably start as first choice after an impressive run towards the end of the season including a goal in the play offs which resulted in him being offered a new contract. With a lack of natural wingers in the team, I think it’ll be down to the full backs to provide the width.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a lot of rotation between the two particularly when the games come thick and fast

What are your thoughts ahead of the League Two season as a whole? Any potential dark horses for you?

I think the two teams coming up from the Conference will do well this season.  I wouldn’t quite have Lincoln as short as some bookies have them but I would definitely have them down as outside bets for the play offs. It’ll be interesting to see how Coventry handle the pressure of being the biggest team in the League. I don’t think the other 3 sides coming down will offer much of a threat as the season progresses.

Where will you finish? We’ve both predicted top 3 in the last two Q&As, third time lucky?

Well, maybe if I say we won’t get anywhere this season, then Luton will prove me wrong again.  Seriously though, I think with the additions we’ve made this season, anything less than promotion would be a disaster and should result in Jones’s position certainly being questioned. However, I’ll let my heart rule my head and confidently predict that we will finish 2nd.

The Football Lab’s Verdict

Luton Town have replaced Walton well, added a hard man in McCormack while Shinnie will create for two of four able goalscorers. With League Two’s other big boys now out of the picture, this must be their time to shine. 1st