'Rough feeling' for Andersen as Hatters fall short at Argyle

Defender Mads Andersen described it as a ‘rough feeling’ having been involved in yet another away defeat for the Hatters on Saturday as Town went down to 1-0 loss at Plymouth Argyle.

The Danish centre half was part of a Luton back-line who headed to Devon looking to end a run of four league games without a win on the road, but it became apparent from fairly early on that the contest was going to finish with the sequence being stretched to five matches. It turned out to be the case too, as the Pilgrims were quickly on top, Nigel Lonwijk making a superb goal-line saving challenge from Matthew Sorinola, while keeper Josh Keeley excellently turned Ronan Curtis’s effort on to the bar and over.

Andersen himself then produced a terrific block on Malachi Boateng’s effort, with Kal Naismith also standing firm against the imposing Lorent Tolaj at various times of the contest, but despite a valiant rearguard attempt, Luton were undone by a goal from one of their former players, Brendan Galloway, during first half stoppage time, a strike which ultimately settled the fixture.

Having had a free kick at the other end, Town soon found themselves defending a corner and despite Keeley again producing heroics to parry Tolah’s header, the Zimbabwe international, who made six appearances during two injury-hit years at Kenilworth Road, took to the air to find the net with an acrobatic overhead volley.

The timing of the goal was a particular cause of frustration for the former Barnsley player, who had been happy enough with the efforts of the visitors' back-line up until that point, saying: “In the first half we obviously had to defend a few moments and we did that well. Sometimes we need that from our goalkeeper as well, we cannot have zero shots on target on our goal every game, so we need our goalkeeper to save as much as possible and we need some good blocks from Kal, Nige, myself when it’s needed.

"That’s the game, that’s what you have to do sometimes in football, but we gave away a poor goal again, which is annoying as a defender. We created enough to get a few goals, so it’s a rough feeling right now and I’m very disappointed. It’s so annoying and because it’s stoppage time we have to clear it, we have to be extra alert as half time is coming up, so it’s extra annoying as if we can just cut out the set-piece goal we’re in a good position to win a lot of games.

“It’s a tough one to take right now, as we did a lot of good preparation for this game and we’ve been training well the whole week, so to not hit our highest performance level is rough. But we have three games this week, we have a game coming up Tuesday and we have to look forward to that.”

After the break, Luton had far more possession, but couldn’t really ever get a head of steam going, new signing Kasey Palmer’s 25-yard drive touched over by Conor Hazard. Nahki Wells then saw his dink parried by the stopper with the loose ball cleared away before crossing the line, while Jordan Clark was denied with the last kick as Town have drawn a blank in three of their last five outings on the road now.

Asked what was needed to try and become more of a goal threat on the road, Andersen continued: “It’s difficult to stand here and say exactly what it was that we needed, we have to take a look at that. I’m not really sure what was missing, we tried to take control of the game and get in those areas where we can create something, get in a cross or something like that.

"We have to take a look at that as I feel like we have a good team, I’m sure you’ve seen that in moments, we’re doing great, we just have to find that little switch, not giving away poor goals and then hopefully scoring some more goals. They did well to be fair though. They were very, very aggressive, they knew what they wanted. It’s a tough one and I’m disappointed right now.

"Maybe we just need those last few bits, but they defended well, they were fighting for 96 minutes, so credit to them. It was rough, it was a disappointing feeling in the air, but we have a game coming up on Tuesday (against Huddersfield), we have to look forward to that. There were some very good bits today, we have to take a look at all the bad bits and correct them, but we have to stay positive.”

The defender was also eager to thank the 790 travelling supporters, a number who had got up in the early hours of the morning to come and cheer their side on at a wet and windy Home Park, only to leave empty-handed for the seventh time in 13 away third tier encounters this term. He added: “Its amazing, I think there were around 800, it’s incredible and we want to thank them a lot. We need them, so it’s a big appreciation from us.”