Sheffield Wednesday and Luton will have to meet again
Hatters boss hits out after stalemate
NATHAN Jones took aim at the “berserk” festive fixture list after Luton and Sheffield Wednesday slogged their way to a dire draw at a half-empty Hillsborough.
Like their Championship opponents, this was the Hatters’ fifth game in 15 days and the physical strain was evident in a clash devoid of chances or incidents.
Normally the epitome of allout attack, Luton managed just a single shot on target and drew a blank for only the third time all season.
The Owls, meanwhile, failed to reproduce the urgency of recent performances in their first game under caretaker Steve Agnew, who is holding the fort until Steve Bruce arrives in February.
“It’s utter, utter stupidity to play this amount of games,” said Jones, whose side stretched their unbeaten run to 16 matches.
“It’s for TV. It’s for the consumer. It’s holiday time, clubs need money and Boxing Day crowds are big. I understand all that.
“But if you want to see good, proper football then it doesn’t work. Players can’t recover enough to play at the levels they have been used to.
“The way we play – intense, attacking – you can’t do that with such a berserk schedule. It’s crazy and somebody needs to have a word.
“You could have just one game less and everybody would be able to watch a better quality of football match.
“That’s why I think people weaken teams and go out of
Cups early. They just can’t afford to make it a priority.”
It certainly isn’t for Luton, who are flying high in League One and hunting a third promotion in five years.
Though far from their fluent best, there was nothing here to suggest the Hatters would be out of their depth in the Championship, including a 4,000-strong band of supporters who never dipped in volume.
Having survived an early scare when Steven Fletcher wastefully headed over from a beautiful Barry Bannan cross, the visitors kept Wednesday at bay with relative ease.
Adam Reach fired wide and Marco Matias twice tested James Shea with vicious piledrivers from range.
Never, though, did the home side create a chance to match Fletcher’s early miss.
“We want to get to the next level,” added Jones. “We believe we’ll get to the next level. We believe we have players who can go to the next level. Today was a test that just rubber stamped what we believe.”
Admittedly, the visitors failed to create much of their own. Wednesday, far more solid since the departure of tinkerman Jos Luhukay, ceded almost nothing in the box, with Luton’s only real chance coming when James Collins failed to meet an inviting rebound six yards out.
For them, the build-up has revolved around the appointment of Bruce, who has deployed deputies Agnew and Stephen Clemence until he starts the job in February.
The former Villa boss is currently in Barbados, reportedly honouring a promise made to his late father that they would one day watch England’s cricket team play the West Indies.
“I can’t say for certain, but I’m sure Steve will be on the phone tonight,” said Agnew, who started on Friday and has kept previous caretaker Lee Bullen on as a staff member.
“He’ll have watched the game and I’m sure he’ll have kicked every ball. When there’s a change of manager, everybody had got different ideas.
“Obviously we only had half an hour yesterday, but I can tell from the feedback already that they’ll enjoy working with us.
“There’s a good shape, a good resilience about the team. The only thing we lacked today was a bit of guile and a goal.”
Wednesday, too, could have done without a replay and a disappointing day got worse when they lost Sam Hutchinson and Bannan to injury.
“We had a heavy Christmas period, but we wanted to keep the momentum,” said Agnew, who made just one change. “It’s worked against us but hopefully the injuries aren’t too serious.”