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Vertu Reality
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No magic of the motor cup
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By:
Max Bygraves
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03/09/2025
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This article has been viewed 371 times.
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The phrase 'life comes at you fast,' is often chucked out on social media to humorously show a big change in someone's fortunes. I can't imagine much more could illustrate this point than Luton Town hosting Barnet in the Vertu Trophy Group Stage when less than two years ago, they were taking on Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool at Kenilworth Road in the Premier League. Walking towards the ground down a lovely alleyway, behind two lads probably in their early twenties, their conversation was lamenting this. An overheard quote of: "It's not the same leaving the pub at 2:45 and walking to the ground and trying to get up for playing Lincoln when in 2023 it was City!" Goodness knows what they made of having to play Barnet.
We have a sporadic history of facing Luton. As here, it's generally when things are going less well for them that our paths cross. Our previous record at Kenilworth Road didn't do much to encourage that this would be a particularly positive experience. However, this is the sort of competition where strange results happen and at £5 a ticket less than an hour away, temptation got the better of 404 of us. To start on a positive, it does say a lot about the current state of our support and renewed enthusiasm amongst the fanbase that when we played Luton in this trophy back in 2017, we took just 68 supporters.
During Luton's brief foray into the Premier League, much was made of their famous amongst the houses away end. Although this was my second trip to Kenilworth Road, I must admit to really allowing myself to take in the sights. There is nowhere quite like this ground. To quote a good friend of mine from our visit a long while ago, it's a "beautiful dump." I couldn't agree more and it'll be sad when yet another relic makes way in the coming years for their long-awaited move to Power Court nearby.
Whilst the ground is something to enjoy, starting with the floodlights poking out above the houses from a little distance away on approach, the town itself is one place that the '...'s a shithole, I want to go home' song really does have some legitimacy. What an utterly abysmal place Luton is. The unseasonably wet and relatively cold weather very much appropriate for one of the most drab and depressing places I can think of. The fact it only took me forty minutes to drive home afterwards made me feel a bit miserable about the fact I live quite so close to such a place.
I suppose we better address the football. Not an evening any of us are going to remember or probably dwell on for too long. Though it was apparent that Luton had a fair bit of quality in their ranks, our defensive display in the first half was generous to say the least. The first goal saw Galvin well and truly caught out and at fault on the left. Not long after, less than convincing defending from Senior and it was 2-0 after twenty minutes. A mountain to climb.
We settled into the game a little after this although the main man in the first half was Owen Evans. Good to see him back in the Barnet goal, certainly with a tough assignment to be re-introduced. He made several fantastic saves along with his usually strong distribution. Unlikely on the back of this to win his place straight back but maybe to have given Brennan something to think about. On the note of players out of the team, it was nice to see recently departed Zak Brunt in the stand supporting his team mates. He was rightly given a good ovation when spotted.
As half time approached, discussion was taking place where I was stood (loved the safe standing, by the way) that if we could hold out until half time and then score early in the second half, then you never know. Within seconds of this chat concluding, Cohen Brammall hit a sensational free kick that Evans could do nothing about to make it 3-0. From a Luton perspective, an incredibly satisfying bar and down number. Hard to be too upset with that one.
It wasn't a huge surprise one or two decided they'd had value for their £5 in those forty five minutes and that they'd make their way back south a little early. We stuck it out, however, and the way the second half began was encouraging. Glover coming on had a positive impact and we had a glimmer of excitement when Kane Smith struck the post. Positives could be taken from the debut of loan signing Ben Winterburn. His stretching header went close also but over the bar. As acknowledged by Brennan in his post match, Scott High had a good game in midfield, his passing quality particularly notable.
Things began to peter out and it looked like it may drift to a 3-0 finish. Lots of initial credit to our sizeable travelling contingent, there was no negativity and a fairly consistent stream of noise. In my humble opinion, however, this was a little mis-directed as the clock ticked on. Maybe I'm becoming a curmudgeonous old man before my time but the chanting of "we've got the ball" / "we've lost the ball," was all a bit toe-curling. Stick it in the same bracket as 'how shit must you be, we're winning away,' and other such self-deprecating 'bants' - not for me.
There was a spell in the second half where the chants turned to those of former players. Fine. A bit of nostalgia there. Stuff like chanting about having the ball ultimately looks like we're taking the piss out of our team. Now I've seen many a Barnet side over time who perhaps deserve to have fun poked at them by their own fans. I can understand how some of this might be amusing when you're in a run where you're losing every week and need to raise spirits. However, in the context of recently being champions and now putting together some better league results at a new level, I'm not sure this light-hearted mockery is really the best fit in our context. Maybe I'm wrong and a grumpy sod. This could be fair. It was a very young average age in the stand and they looked like they were having a good time, anyway.
There were more goals in the game. Not a chance from our viewpoint of really seeing what for, but Luton were awarded a late penalty. New signing Shaydon Baptiste opened his Hatters account, sending Evans the wrong way.
However, the final cheer of the night was a Barnet one. An excellent header from Adam Senior found its way into the top corner of James Shea's net to produce some very enthusiastic celebrations for a 96th minute consolation to make it 4-1. At least we'd ended on a positive.
Brennan and the team were given a strong ovation at the end before we shuffled through those back gardens and out into the Luton night. I didn't think I'd go to this one. I can say with total certainty there's no way I will be watching us play Brighton's youth team in the next fixture in this competition - a really farcical scenario. A sub 400 crowd for that one?
What I will be doing though is watching us gain our first three points at The Hive this season against Shrewsbury on Saturday. Onwards and upwards.
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