Goalscorers Danny Crow and Matthew Barnes-Homer were praised by Luton Town manager Richard Money for their teamwork as much as their goals in a 3-0 win against a Liverpool XI.
Richard Money
In the Hatters’ first home game of their pre-season campaign Barnes-Homer scored the opening goal, while Crow finished off a wonderful team move to claim his first goal in front of his new supporters.
Dan Gleeson added the third but it was the forwards which showed that last year’s first choice strike partnership of Tom Craddock and Kevin Gallen, who didn’t feature, will have some strong competition this term.
“People will remember that they scored a goal apiece and I thought their play at times was outstanding and both looked dangerous and marauding, giving the defence a real problem,” said Money on the pairing. “The decent thing about the two of them was how hard they worked without the ball.
“Awkward teams defend from the front and we’ve had a look at how we want to defend at home this year and it might be a little bit different to what people are used to and so the way that the front two defended was excellent.”
The Town boss was impressed with his team’s dispatching of a young Reds team, believing that the performance highlights the strength the Blue Square Bet Premier title favourites.
Money said: “I’m not sure whether people at the stadium understand but that same Liverpool team went to Oldham on Saturday and beat their first team 3-0.
“Even though their might not have been any familiar names on the team sheet, there are internationals there that they played a lot of money for and I thought that we showed that we’ve got some quality ourselves. We got pretty much everything we wanted out of the game.
“From my time at Newcastle, in the same position, I know those players pretty well so I know they have quality. We expected a really tough game and we got one, but we played well and I’m really pleased with it.
Asked if the team that started against Liverpool was his strongest starting 11, Money said: “You’d have to ask Craddock and Gallen that – and Claude [Gnakpa].
“It shows that we’ve got a little bit more depth this year. The nice thing is that we put some of the kids on purposefully when we were in a comfortable position and [Godfrey] Poku came on and showed that he’s not out of place in our team at all.
“Adam Watkins is not too far away from being able to play, Alex Lacey came on and looked comfortable. We’ve got a good group of senior players and some good young players coming through which we need to blood at the right time.”
Gnakpa was again absent from Luton’s squad, suffering from a niggle picked up in the squad’s Portuguese training camp, but the manager was delighted with his midfield, hailing Jake Howells, Adam Murray and Andy Drury’s versatility across the middle.
He said: “Last year you would say that Gnakpa was a shoe-in, but we’ve tried to create an environment in the summer where there are none and they have to play for their places. I think we are getting there.”
On the French winger, the Hatters chief was quick to quash speculation and about his future, saying he is due to make a return to the training pitch.
He said: “The rumour mill out there is that we need to re-sign Claude. He has another 12 months on his contract, end of story and he’ll train on Thursday.”
With Gleeson’s goal in the second half and a clean sheet Money was also happy with his defence, suggesting that they’d be able to cope more with the rigours of the Conference.
“We commented on the touchline that if you look at the back four then it’s bigger and stronger than last year,” he said. “As I said at the end of the season about Stevenage, you look at them and they were very tough to play against and we’ve got to mix our football with that ability to be strong and tough at the right time.
“With Gleeson at right back it just looks a bigger unit. He’s a threat at set plays and good at them in a defensive situation.”