Rovers ended their 2019-20 league campaign, the way they started it, with a defeat to a promoted side, as Luton Town secured the double over Rovers to avoid a straight relegation back to League One, on the final day of an unforgettable season.
Ahead of the final game of the season, Tony Mowbray named an unchanged side to the one that came out on top in Saturday’s 4-3 win at Ewood Park against Reading. Despite the same starting lineup being named, there were changes to the bench as Jayson Leutwiler, Tyler Magloire and Stewart Downing were left out, whilst academy graduate ‘keeper Jordan Eastham, Amari’i Bell and Danny Graham all moved onto the bench. With six players seeing their contracts expire tonight at midnight in Jayson Leutwiler, Sam Hart, Richie Smallwood, birthday boy Stewart Downing, Dominic Samuel and Danny Graham, only Graham made the team, which left supporters asking questions over the futures of the other five players. Despite the possible impending departures, skipper Darragh Lenihan was hoping to mark his 150th Rovers start with a win. Alongside the skipper was Graham who, if featured off the bench, despite his contract situation not being public knowledge, would accrue his 600th club career appearance.
After referee Darren Bond coordinated himself with his assistants and his fellow referees up and down the country to make the 7:30pm kick-offs start simultaneously, the players took ‘the knee’ for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, before Town’s Luke Berry got the game underway for the final time in the 2019-20 season, as the Hatters’ players prepared themselves for the fight to save their Championship careers.
The action came quick at Kenilworth Road as Rovers were offered a scare after only 30 seconds as the ball flashed across the face of former Luton loanee Christian Walton’s goal, via some inviting crosses from either flank. Despite the pressure, Luton never manage to properly put Rovers in danger as Mowbray’s men cleared the danger.
The first attempt at goal came after 5 minutes, courtesy of Rovers’ Bradley Johnson who tried his luck from range, yet he was denied a fourth goal of the season as Town ‘keeper Simon Sluga made a fine stop to palm the ball away to his right.
On the 10th minute, Rovers managed to scramble themselves ahead courtesy of the recent Player and Goal of the Season winner, Adam Armstrong. The attacker scored his 17th goal of the season in all competitions, with his closest finish this campaign after his plethora of worldies throughout the season. Lewis Holtby’s corner dropped invitingly to the Geordie forward, after bouncing off a few legs, and the striker only had to swivel and finish to put Rovers 1-0 up with his least spectacular finish of the season, as Luton feared the worse after going behind.
Rovers again tried their luck on the 16th minute through Lewis Holtby, yet the German’s effort veered right of Sluga’s goal.
It took until the 20th minute for Luton to react to going behind as Harry Cornick came close to levelling the scoring with a nod that narrowly dropped over the bar. James Bree delivered an inviting cross from the right-hand side that Cornick connected with, however the winger failed to keep his attempt on target as it looped over the bar. From Walton’s goal-kick, Luton regained possession and immediately burst forward towards Rovers’ net as Cornick turned provider for James Collins whose header landed wide of the mark.
After the game’s first drinks break on the 25th minute, Luton pegged Rovers back on the 28th minute in the most unlucky fashion as young defender Hayden Carter scored his first professional goal, but sadly it was at the wrong end as the scores were levelled at 1-1. James Bree’s deep free-kick was flicked on by Berry, yet the ball caught young Carter unaware as his reactionary attempt at nodding the ball away from goal saw him wrong-foot Christian Walton, before seeing the ball take an awkward bounce before nestling into the left-hand corner of the net to level the game.
Things didn’t end there for Rovers, as they saw themselves go behind for the first time in the game, just seven minutes after Luton drew themselves level. Bree’s in-swinging corner dropped towards the near-post before it was diverted in by a combination of Rovers’ Bradley Johnson and Town’s Sonny Bradley. Although Luton’s Bradley helped the cross on, it was Rovers’ own Bradley, in Johnson who got the final touch as he inadvertently poked it past his own goalkeeper to put Luton 2-1 up.
On the 36th minute, the first card of the game was handed out as Lewis Travis earnt his 13th yellow card of the season after he made a rash challenge inside the Hatters’ half.
Although Darren Bond added on four minutes onto the end of the first-half to make up for the goals, the added minutes lacked the goal-mouth action that the previous 45 minutes had, which saw the referee swiftly bring the final first-half of Rovers and Luton’s season to a close.
The home dressing room would have been euphoric having taken the lead, given their nail-biting circumstances ahead of kick-off. Although there would have been a possibility that Luton would have had to rely on results elsewhere to keep them in the division, the fact they were leading, coupled with the potential off-the-field antics at Wigan Athletic, would have been a huge confidence boost for Luton Town and Nathan Jones. The former Stoke boss would have been trying to keep his side’s focus intact given Rovers’ threats, despite taking a moment to undoubtedly check on results elsewhere.
In the away dressing room, a stunned Tony Mowbray would have been furious with the fact that his side had fallen behind after two own goals. The boss would have been pleased with the start his team had made but would have been frustrated that Luton had gained the upper hand in the game. Furthermore, the boss would have been quick to encourage his players to try and take the initiative in the second-half to deny Luton the bragging rights of beating Rovers both, home and away, this season.
Just before both teams returned for the second-half, which Adam Armstrong kicked-off, Tony Mowbray made a double change at the break which saw the seasons of Lewis Holtby and Lewis Travis end, as John Buckley and Jacob Davenport came on to replace them.
Like in the first period, the first sight at goal of the second-half fell to Rovers, courtesy of Joe Rothwell who tried his luck from distance after 54 minute. Unfortunately, last season’s Goal of the Season winner couldn’t replicate his efforts as his attempt landed comfortably off target.
On the hour mark, things went from bad to worse for Rovers as substitute Jacob Davenport offered Luton a chance to further extend their lead after Harry Cornick was seemingly brought down inside the penalty area, despite it looking incredibly harsh and theatrical. James Collins shouldered the responsibility of the spot-kick and duly managed to convert, despite slipping, to put his side 3-1 ahead with his 14th goal of the season.
Conceding that goal saw Tony Mowbray forced to make two attacking changes, as Danny Graham came on for his 600th club career appearance, alongside Sam Gallagher, as the pair replaced the goalscoring Adam Armstrong and hard-working Ben Brereton.
Harry Cornick was soon pencilled into the referee’s book after he brought down Joe Rankin-Costello on the 65th minute.
The 71st minute saw Nathan Jones make his first substitutions of the game as Danny Hylton and Kazenga LuaLua came on to replace penalty winner Harry Cornick and penalty converter James Collins.
Rovers soon managed to claw themselves back into the game on the 75th minute in an attempt to try and make the final 15 minutes of the season an interesting and nervy one for the hosts. Darragh Lenihan floated in a long-ball from inside his own half towards the head of Danny Graham who was wrestling with a defender. The forward managed to mark his 600th club career outing with an assist as he flicked the ball down into the path of an onside Sam Gallagher who grabbed his second in as many games with a deft, outside of the right-foot flick, which squeezed in at Sluga’s near-post and nestled into the back of the net to reduce the arrears to 3-2.
With their tails up, Rovers came knocking 60 seconds later, but saw their quickfire snapshot by John Buckley deflect wide of the mark. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make the subsequent corner count as Luton did well to stand firm against Rovers’ barrage.
The 78th minute saw Joe Rothwell’s season ended as he was withdrawn and replaced by Elliott Bennett in a straight swap. Simultaneously, Luton brought on former Rover, Matty Pearson – who scored the winner in the reverse fixture at Ewood Park – to replace former West Ham United trainee Elliott Lee.
Although Luton began their mind games and their time-wasting tactics by getting rid of all the balls propped up around the pitch on cones to try and eat away the seconds, their only punishment for timewasting, came through on-field cards, not through warnings or bookings to the Luton bench, as Cameron Carter-Vickers, who kicked the only active ball away after a stoppage in play, was booked in the 83rd minute.
The home team’s antics continued into the final 10 minutes of the game, as Luton substitute Danny Hylton was also booked for the same offence as Spurs loanee, Carter-Vickers.
Referee Darren Bond had to make up for such unsportsmanlike antics by adding on an extra seven minutes of time onto the end of the game, which increased the nerves around Kenilworth Road as the home coaching staff began beckoning for the final whistle at every opportunity.
The final act of the season was again in distaste as Berry saw yellow for repeating the actions of Messrs Hylton and Carter-Vickers.
With Luton’s survival set to be secured with victory, Mr. Bond called an end to the game, and the campaign which ended in mixed emotions for Rovers as they would have liked to have kept their playoff charge going for a bit longer than it did. In contrast, euphoria erupted on the final whistle as Nathan Jones, his coaching staff and his players could not contain themselves after they had picked up the most valuable points of their season. Unfortunately, that celebration was soured by an altercation between Jones and Rovers’ first-team coach David Lowe, after the Rovers man had complained about the lack of footballs around the stadium. Thankfully the altercation was extinguished quickly, which allowed Luton to embrace and bask in their unexpected achievement.
Whilst the game meant nothing in truth for Rovers, it is never nice to end the season in defeat, especially after everything that has gone on this campaign. Although the goals offered Rovers some high points during this game, it was a tie which left more questions than answers, heading into the 2020/2021 season, which is set to start in September, if all goes well.
Although Adam Armstrong deserves a big mention for his impact following the injury to Bradley Dack, after ‘Mini-Shearer’ bagged the Player and Goal of the Season awards this week, an appreciation should be made to those whose contracts are expiring at midnight tonight. Whether they do continue their journey with the club or not, we as fans must be thankful for their contribution, no matter how small, in helping turn this ship around and aiding towards re-establishing ourselves as a top-half side in this division, after the rough number of years the club has had.
With crucial dates such as the release of the 2020/21 fixture list, yet to be finalised, here’s hoping that things will turn out well for Rovers and Tony Mowbray over the next month and a half, before the start of the new campaign. Whilst hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic will quickly cease, given that the transfer window is set to open on Monday 27th July and set to close Monday 5th October, it’ll be interesting to see how the Owners have reacted and structured their finances, in order to give Tony Mowbray the best possible chance of competing in a difficult market over the summer.
Given that the seemingly ‘never-ending’ campaign has finally concluded, Rovers will undoubtedly look back at their 11th place finish with hints of both success and regret. Whilst the finish is an improvement on last year’s 15th place, there would have been some regret around the club and the town that their playoff push spluttered to a halt at Millwall, given they had two games of the campaign remaining.
The final 2019-20 league table – including Wigan Athletic’s relegation given their impending -12 points deduction for entering administration – is shown below;
