'Angry' Luton defender thought Town deserved more at Stevenage
Andersen furious that Boro’s goal were allowed to stand
An ‘angry’ defender Mads Andersen felt the Hatters definitely deserved to take something from what turned into yet another defeat against Stevenage yesterday evening, the visitors on the end of two controversial decisions from the officials in their 2-1 reverse at the SPORTA Arena.
First, with the scores goalless midway through the first half, Town midfielder Liam Walsh was quite clearly fouled by Boro’s Daniel Phillips in the eyes of everyone but the man in the middle Andrew Humphries, who somehow waved play on, allowing Dan Kemp to pick up the loose ball, speed at Luton’s backpedalling defence and find the net from 22 yards, the Irish international not covering himself in any kind of glory at all, as it was a shot he really ought to have saved.
Then, with 20 minutes of the contest remaining, Stevenage broke forward on their left, as on-loan Aston Villa youngster Ben Broggio got the better of fellow centre half Hakeem Odoffin, seeing saw his cross deflect off Keeley and hit Josh Magennis, who was following up, to rebound over the line. However, the Northern Ireland international was clearly in an offside position, but this too was allowed to slide by the referee’s assistant on the far side, meaning that Andersen’s fortunate goal five minutes later was no more than a consolation.
Speaking afterwards, the Danish centre half, who was starting his third game in succession as part of a back three, said: “I am not a person to get angry, but I got angry today and that should say enough. It’s very annoying right now, but I cannot comment too much on it. If we get a free kick for the first goal and then it’s offside, we win 1-0. We go home from here, we have played a very good game, been solid, we’ve stuck up for the fight, we’ve been brave on the ball and I think we still should be very happy with our performance.
“I think we deserved something from the game. I thought we played a good, solid game. We stuck to the gameplan that we wanted to. We were up for the fight the other team were bringing, but not playing their game as well. We were being brave on the ball and I thought we did that well, so I’m very disappointed right now.”
Although Luton had 70 percent possession and 10 shots during the contest, bar Andersen’s inadvertent attempt and Gideon Kodua’s blast in the first minute that Tommy Setford parried away, then apart from Callum Marshall’s low drive in the first half, they didn’t ever really go close to finding the net again.
In fact, the Hatters reverted to the kind of sideways and backwards passing for large chunks of the second period that frustrated travelling supporters last year, and did so once more for those who made the short trip, meaning that a grandstand finish never looked likely on the cards. Despite that, Andersen still felt the visitors could be happy with their overall display, continuing: “We’re obviously disappointed, but very positive as we stuck to the gameplan as that’s what we should do, that’s what we should fall back to. We’re very, very disappointed right now, but loads of good stuff. We could have been a little bit better in the final third, that’s something we have to take a look at.”
One plus is that after an exhausting schedule, Andersen and his team-mates can now have some time off before readying themselves for the visit of Bradford City next weekend. Asked about that, plus if he had a message for the near 1,400 travelling fans who left Hertfordshire disappointed yet again, the defender added: “Thank you for the support, stick with us, believe in us, we need them. We’ve played a lot of games recently, so it will be good to rest a little bit and then get back and ready for Bradford.”