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VENUE Gresty Road ATTENDANCE 4,490 REFEREE Eddie Ilderton (Tyne & Wear) MATCH DATE 20 October 2007 KICK OFF TIME 15:00

CREWE ALEXANDRA Ben Williams   George Abbey   Gary Roberts 51   Julian Baudet   Danny O'Donnell 45   Chris McCready   Billy Jones   Ben Rix   Neil Cox   Stephen Schumacher   Byron Moore   Lee Barnard   Ryan Lowe 9   Simon Church   SUBS NOT USED Shaun Miller   Michael O'Connor

LUTON TOWN Ben Alnwick   Richard Jackson   Steve Robinson 70   Chris Perry   Jaroslaw Fojut   Alan Goodall David Bell   Don Hutchison   David Edwards 70   Matthew Spring   Darren Currie   Paul Furlong   Calvin Andrew   Dean Morgan 58   SUBS NOT USED Ahmet Brkovic   Chris Coyne

Match Report	20 October 2007
Crewe Alexandra 2 - 0 Luton Town

CREWE ALEXANDRA 2 Ryan Lowe '14, '40  LUTON TOWN 0 N/A

DIRE LUTON LOSE ON THEIR TRAVELS YET AGAIN...

Luton' Towns season of inconsistency continued with another shambolic away-day showing this time against struggling Crewe Alexandra.

A simply abysmal first half left the Hatters lucky to be just 0-2 down to substitute Ryan Lowe's brace in a one-sided 45 minutes.

And although Luton put in an improved display after the interval, in truth the Hatters never looked like scoring with the majority of efforts being sent harmlessly off target.

The closest Kevin Blackwell's men came to finding the net came as late as the 78th minute when substitute Dave Edwards saw a close range effort strike the post.

But overall Luton looked powder puff and strangely off the pace – far removed from the style shown in the live Sky demolition of the Cobblers five days previously.

The defeat made it just one point collected from a possible 16 on the road in the league, leaving the travelling Luton fans tearing their hair out in frustration.

After their impressive 4-1 Monday night win over Northampton, Luton made two changes as Spurs loan man Ben Alnwick, back after England Under 21 duty, replaced Dean Brill in goal while Calvin Andrew came in for Drew Talbot, absent with flu.

Crewe, without a league win in their last six games, meanwhile made three alterations to the side that crashed 0-3 at Southend United in their last outing.

In a sparsely filled Gresty Road stadium the game started slowly with the first opening falling to the hosts in the fourth minute as Richard Jackson moved to tackle Byron Moore after Steven Schumacher's quickly-taken free kick on the edge of the area.

The opening had been presented by Jackson's crunching challenge on the Alex's own Spurs loan man Lee Barnard and that tackle saw the end of the striker's afternoon shortly after as he limped off to be replaced by Lowe in the ninth minute.

The first effort on goal came two minutes later as Alan Goodall crossed with his right foot from the left flank to the far post for David Bell to nod across goal and see Paul Furlong place a header straight at Ben Williams.

"Crewe turned the screw and took the lead in the 14th minute"

That was as good as the half got for Luton though as Crewe turned the screw and took the lead in the 14th minute.

Speedy winger Moore made good progress down the right and found Simon Church, who pulled back for home skipper and former Watford man Neil Cox to drill a shot from 25-yards.

The ball was blocked, but only rebounded into the path of substitute Lowe, who drilled an angled shot, low under the body of Alnwick from 12-yards.

With Lowe and Church beginning to form an understanding, the Railwayman kept up the offensive and a neat move in the 27th minute involving full back George Abbey and the two front men caused Alnwick to come rushing off his line to smother the danger.

The next opening came on the half-hour mark as Lowe caught the Luton defence napping and played in Church, whose shot from the right corner of the penalty area was cleared off the line by Jaroslaw Fojut.

From the resulting corner Alnwick then had to save Julien Baudet's goal bound 15-yard header.

Lowe and Church linked up again in the 35th minute and as the latter threatened to run clean through, Chris Perry managed to avert the danger with a last-ditch saving tackle.

The flow of the game was interrupted momentarily two minutes later as Andrew headed down a long Darren Currie pass for Furlong to rifle a 25-yard volley just over.

"Crewe doubled their advantage in the 40th minute"

But Crewe doubled their advantage in the 40th minute as Church this time played in Lowe, who cut inside Fojut before coolly firing the ball over the despairing dive of Alnwick.

A jinking run from Ben Rix almost set up Lowe for his hat-trick moments later only for Alnwick to save the striker's shot on the turn and only another saving tackle from Perry stopped Schumacher bursting through two minutes before the break.

Crewe ended the half with their second enforced substitution as Baudet limped off to be replaced by Daniel O'Donnell and five minutes into the second period they had used all their replacements as Gary Roberts came on for the injured Abbey.

The changes gave Luton a lift and Andrew drilled a 30-yard effort at Williams in the 52nd minute before Bell fired just over with his left foot from the edge of the area three minutes later.

The Hatters reshuffled by replacing Andrew with Morgan in the 58th minute and moments later they went within a whisker of pulling a goal back as Bell headed Currie's teasing left wing cross just past the post from eight-yards.

Luton went for broke in the 70th minute by bringing on Steve Robinson for Jackson and Edwards for Hutchison, who accepted the decision by angrily hurling down his tracksuit top as he took his seat on the bench.

The re-shape saw the Hatters playing a confusing 3-1-5-1 formation, which seemed to leave the players looking quizzically at each other.

However, the new approach did see Furlong head just over from Bell's cross in the 72nd minute before Edwards hit a tame 20-yarder at Williams in the 76th minute.

Edwards went much closer two minutes later as he beat Williams with a six-yard prodded effort after Bell's deep centre from the right, but the ball rebounded off the post and across the face of goal.

Ellis' Comments	20 October 2007
Crewe Alexandra 2-0 Luton Town "It was too little too late in the end, and the fact remains that our away form is causing us problems at the moment "I don't know if we're afraid and I don't know if we play with the same attitude, but something's wrong and it's not our football. "Crewe will play good stuff if you let them and that's what we did. "You can say that when you're luck's out it's not going to go for you because their substitute came on and scored two goals when he'd been dropped for not playing well. "And then our substitute (David Edwards) came on and hit the post and the ball rolled along the line. "But the fact is we're not good enough away from home. We're not big enough and we're not strong enough mentally or physically. "Kevin Blackwell will be thinking along the lines of change. "We need to change something whether it's the team, or our attitude or our approach to playing, but whatever it is we need to change it quickly. "We played well on Monday so we gave the boys the chance to do it again, but maybe that was the wrong decision because some of those boys didn't perform. "There's nothing wrong with our home form or the way we play there so something has to be done. "Away from home we've scored two goals in six games whereas at home we've scored 13 in six. "I don't know what is going wrong, but it's got to be more than just footballing matters."

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