The View From Churchmans

Blimey. Didn't see that one coming. Over the years, various teams have gone down heavily at Portman Road by letting us play football and relying on devices like the offside trap; squads and managers may come and go, but some things never seem to change. Luton's tactics this afternoon may have been forced on them by injury and illness, but they ended up on the receiving end of one of Town's most comfortable ... More...

The change in defence was probably expected tonight, although the double change in midfield may have been more of a surprise; whatever the case, this was quite a different Town lineup to Saturday. And for 45 minutes, it worked. Admittedly, Preston played nothing like their recent form has suggested they would, but Town moved the ball around sweetly, looked very confident, and might have had more than two goals to show from a ... More...

There are five-one defeats and there are five-one defeats. This wasn't a defeat of the Wimbledon kind, where the team lost because it didn't seem to care; this was a defeat against a much better team, which took all of its chances clinically. Although I'm not putting West Brom in the same class, I was reminded of the home defeat against Liverpool, where you just had to sit back and admire the way ... More...