Preview - Luton (League Cup)

League Cup, Third Round and another easy tie, or so it would seem. Despite Luton's heroics in the last round beating Sunderland 3-0, Pards is determined to concentrate on the Fizzies and is therefore going for the second string, or so he tells us.

History
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Not Good!

And once again, and its getting quite boring, another team that we usually lost to. The current score, in League games anyway, is 22-29 to them.

The Opponents
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Good at Home

After their relegation from the Fizzies last season - which they said goodbye to with a 5-0 hammering at home from Sunderland - they've done rather well at home.

Home wins against Port Vale 2-1, Gillingham 3-1, and Hartlepool 2-1 have only been spoiled by a defeat against Jekyll and Hyde Bristol Rovers who can't win at home and can't lose away.
As for the League Cup, after beating Dagenham and Redbridge away 2-1 in the First Round they then surprised everyone and beat Sunderland 3-0 at home in the last round.

Another thing to watch out for is, unlike the Addicks who are 6th from bottom in that little league, is their very good record in the first half of games. They're third best in their League during first half play but 4th worst in 2nd. So they start well and then fade away which is the complete opposite to the Addicks. A game of two halves then.

Who Are Yorr?
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Chris Perry?

A famous name is 38 year old Paul Furlong who cost Chelsea 2.3M in 1994 and played in the Premiership for them for a couple of years. A summer signing he played up front on his own last weekend when with home advantage Luton played a 4-5-1 but he's their top goalscorer with 5 goals this season. Another new signing is one player that we'll all remember - Chris Perry. He's now 34 and was released by West Brom during the summer.

The Addicks
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Second String

Randolph will perform between the sticks and we should see the return of Yassin Moutaouakil to right-back, but after Pards refusal to allow Chrissie Powell yet another midweek game, we could see Osei Sanfoka play his first game of the year. With Sammy Sodje cup-tied, the two centre-backs are any two from Bougherra, Fortune and McCarthy.

Matty Holland will probably enjoy his first game of the season in midfield after his injury with saturdays MOM Jose Semedo and Andy Reid both being given a rest. Therry Racon will also be pushing for a start as his last game was the last round tie against Stockport. And we could see Darren Ambrose playing after only performing a substitute role against both Norwich and Leicester last week.

With Danny Mills surging down the wing at every opportunity last Saturday, Lloyd Sam seemed to have a problem of where to go and was eventually withdrawn, but its possible that with Moutaouakil's return, Pards may want to see if Sam plays better with the Frenchman behind him.

And similar to Stockport Todorov will probably partner McLeod up front although with Luton's tendency to play a 4-5-1 even in home games we could see a lone striker.

So prediction is Randolph; Moutaouakil, McCarthy, Fortune, Sanfoka; Sam, Racon, Holland, ZiZi, Ambrose; Todorov

What Does Pards Say?
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Chrissie Punished for Celebrating..

"Our priority is promotion so I need to protect this team, Chris Powell, for example, has played three games in a week - and he wastes extra energy milking all the applause that he gets - so he won't play on Tuesday. I will give the squad players an opportunity against Luton. Players like Matt Holland, Yassin Moutaouakil and Svetoslav Todorov are itching to play, so the first-team knows that it must continue to play well.”

Predictions
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We don't care

With everyone being rested a 2-1 defeat is very likely to see the end of our League Cup campaign.