Match Preview: Luton Town

F9B63911-6115-438B-89AC-A854137F75AB — Image: Luton Town

After a run of 4 games in 13 days, we finally got a deserved rest. This weekend’s game is against a high scoring Luton Town who we cannot underestimate…

Luton have been one of the most entertaining teams in the league this season. They score goals for fun but also concede their fair share. Nathan Jones is the man at the helm who plays a high tempo pressing game with a man-to-man oriented marking system. His side find themselves twelfth in the league so it wouldn’t be wrong to describe them as the most average team in the league. However, as we have seen many times in the Championship, a few wins and they could find themselves in the playoffs.

Luton’s best player is Elijah Adebayo which may ring a bell being a former Fulham academy player. Despite starting his career as a centre back, he now plays upfront and is his sides top scorer with 9 goals. He is big and strong, so our centre backs will need to pay close attention to him.

We are currently sitting top of the league after our previous draw with Bournemouth. Our last few games have not been our best performances of which a large part can be attributed to the illness we had going around the first team. I’m pretty optimistic we will find some form going into the Christmas period and extend our lead at the top especially if we can get Tom Cairney firing on all cylinders. He changed the game when he came on against our title challengers and on his day he one of the best in the league. I think this game with Luton will be full of goals but we will score the majority.

I would make three changes to the team that beat Bournemouth. I would make two of the changes to the defence both at full back. Denis Odoi and Joe Bryan are great options but Kenny Tete and Antonee Robinson are more effective, especially at this level. The other change I would make is Tom Cairney in for Fabio Carvalho. I talked about his excellent sub performance earlier and Carvalho is very talented but Cairney’s last performance warrants a start.

I am going to be ambitious and predict that we will handsomely with a Mitro hattrick and goals from Cairney and Wilson.

SCORE PREDICTION: Luton Town 1-5 Fulham

PREFERRED LINE-UP: 4-2-3-1

H2H LEAGUE RECORD (OVERALL)

PLAYED – 50
FULHAM WINS – 25
DRAWS – 5
LUTON WINS – 20
GOALS SCORED – 83
GOALS CONCEDED – 76

H2H LEAGUE RECORD (AWAY)

PLAYED – 25
FULHAM WINS – 8
DRAWS – 2
LUTON WINS – 15
GOALS SCORED – 31
GOALS CONCEDED – 47

LAST 5 GAMES

LUTON TOWN 3-3 FULHAM
FULHAM 3-2 LUTON TOWN
LUTON TOWN 0-3 FULHAM (FA Cup)
FULHAM 2-2 LUTON TOWN (FA Cup)
LUTON TOWN 0-4 FULHAM

BIGGEST WINS AT KENILWORTH ROAD

LUTON TOWN 3-8 FULHAM (1907/08 – FA Cup)
LUTON TOWN 5-0 FULHAM (1930/31)
LUTON TOWN 4-0 FULHAM (1937/38, 1979/80)
LUTON TOWN 0-4 FULHAM (1998/99)

PLAYERS IN COMMON

Elijah Adebayo, Jimmy Allen, Bobby Brennan, Mick Brown, Viv Busby, David Button, Iain Dowie, John Dreyer, Sean Farrell, Vic Halom, Duncan Jupp, Malcolm Macdonald, Chris Martin, Alan Neilson, Mark Pembridge, Paul Peschisolido, Bjorn Runstrom, John Ryan, Tony Thorpe, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Mark Walton, Robert Wilson, Cauley Woodrow.

DID YOU KNOW?

On 11th January 1908, our first ever meeting with Luton Town ended in a 3-8 away win to Fulham in the FA Cup. It remains the third highest scoring match in our history.
Our last defeat away to The Hatters was 41 years ago, a 4-0 loss in 1979/80.
Fulham have scored at least 3 goals in each of our last 4 visits to Kenilworth Road.