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Pompey’s winning run came to
an end as they were narrowly beaten in a poor Championship contest at
struggling Luton. Jordan Clark netted the only goal midway through the first half to move the Hatters off the foot of the table. And although the Blues were much better after the interval, they rarely came close to finding an equaliser. John Mousinho made two enforced changes from the side that beat Queens Park Rangers on home soil the previous week. With centre-backs Rob Atkinson and Hayden Matthews both injured, they were replaced by Regan Poole and skipper Marlon Pack. League Two title-winning hero Kal Naismith recovered from an injury to start in defence for the hosts. The first half was a largely scrappy affair, short on both quality and clear-cut opportunities at either end. There were decisions that left both sides frustrated, although the visitors could have few complaints over bookings for Andre Dozzell, Matt Ritchie and Josh Murphy. Pompey’s best openings came in the early stages and Thomas Kaminski did well to reach Dozzell’s pass before Murphy after Liam Walsh had slipped. A low delivery from Murphy towards Colby Bishop was then turned behind by Amari’i Bell, with the corner coming to nothing. There was almost a catastrophe at the other end, when Poole tried to play the ball back to Nicolas Schmid, but it flew past him and the keeper had to race back to clear. Luton did take the lead on 25 minutes, though, after breaking quickly up the pitch from a Blues free-kick. Jacob Brown’s cross was turned against his own post by Pack, with Clark following up to slam home the loose ball. That was pretty much it in terms of noteworthy moments before the break, as a series of niggly fouls broke up any rhythm. There was one nice passage of play from the visitors, but that ended with a Murphy strike that flew high over the bar. Half Time: Luton 1 Pompey 0 Mousinho made a switch at the break, with Ritchie making way for Liverpool loanee Kaide Gordon on the right. Pompey looked to make a fast start and when Bishop could not connect with Murphy’s cross, a shot from Dozzell was blocked on the edge of the box. The visitors were certainly looking a lot brighter and a series of corners caused problems before a curling Gordon effort just lacked enough dip. A second switch followed just past the hour mark, as Kusini Yengi replaced Murphy for his first club appearance since early November. And there were two more on 73 minutes, when Cohen Bramall and Christian Saydee came on for Zak Swanson and Adil Aouchiche. But Luton did seem to have weathered the earlier storm, as Pompey struggled to test Kaminski between the sticks. They needed to capitalise on the sense of nervous energy starting to emanate from the stands at Kenilworth Road. Terry Devlin came on for Isaac Hayden as the Blues looked to find an equaliser in the contest’s closing stages. It might have arrived on 87 minutes when Saydee raced onto Poole’s pass down the line and sent in a cross, but Connor Ogilvie could only nod over. |
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