Luton Town (Away) 26.07.2025

With Destiny Udogie dropping out of the side after feeling something in the warm-up, he was replaced at left-back by Jamie Donley in what was a very strong team.  The game gave the younger substitutes a great chance to be involved in the first team.

In the 10th minute Mathys Tel nudged a ball forward inside the box to Mohammed Kudus, who slid a shot at goal past Josh Keeley, but Makosso was in the right place for Luton to block it in front of the line.  At the other end, Clarke drew a foul from Kudus just outside the box and the resulting free-kick was hammered into the wall, with the follow-up shot being charged down too, with a corner won in the second phase of play.  That came out to Naismith on the right corner of the box and he tried to curl it, but it went wide of the far post. 

There was lots of passing and lots of effort, but not much end result from either team, with both sides getting in behind the defence, but offside flags pulled play back.  Djed Spence was caught dwelling on the ball and then passed the ball straight to Alli just outside the Spurs penalty box, allowing him to burst towards the dead ball line, but his low fast cross was deflected off Kevin Danso for a throw-in on the far side. 

Some changes at half-time didn’t improve things, with Luton going closest to scoring in the 53rd minute when Toni Kinsky made a fine shot to beat out a volley from Wells at the far post after a cross from the left and then a minute later Wells hit shot, with Danso doing well to get a challenge in that forced him to shoot over.  A series of fouls, with Alli involved regularly, – the worst when he threw his head back into Djed’s face, served to ruin any rhythm the game might have wanted to settle into.

16 year old Jun’ai Byfield came off the bench to replace Kevin Danso in the 64th minute, with fellow teenager Archie Gray looking for a big diagonal to Brennan Johnson on the left every time he had possession.  Another foul given against Kudus handed Luton a free-kick 25 yards out, but it was blocked by the wall. 

Fifteen minutes from the end, Spence hit a long ball to the far side of the box and Brennan crossed it back beyond the far post.  Muhammed Kudus picked it up, drifted past a defender and his ball into the near post that was looking for Johnson was nudged back to Keeley by Saville. 

More subs for both sides made the play disjointed as they tried to settle into the pace of the game, but Callum Olusesi nicked the ball away from Phillips and played it into Will Lankshear in the box.  His first touch was good with his left foot to put it in the right place for a right foot shot, but he dragged the ball from wide of the near post to wide of the far post with a minute to play.  

There was an obvious difference in how far away from the first competitive match the two teams were with Luton, with the Hatters just five days away from their first League One match, while Burnley’s visit to the THS three weeks off.  And it showed, with Luton a bit sharper and their players lasted longer in the match than Tottenham’s, as the game sometimes passed some of our players by.  As it is, the squad will be jetting off to Hong Kong, South Korea and then Germany for games against Woolwich Wanderers, Newcash United and Bayern Munich as the programme is stepped up towards meeting Paris Saint Germain in the UEFA Super Cup three days before the Premier League opener.