Lions on a roll but rain stops play at Luton

By Ian Toal on December 13, 2007 12:00 AM |

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IT WAS a mixed week for Lions supporters as we got a great, if somewhat unexpected, away win on Tuesday in the derby match with League One high-flyers Leyton Orient.
But then we had our match away to Luton last Saturday called off just one hour before kick-off when most Lions supporters were either at the ground or very close by.
Personally, I was on my second pint at a nearby pub and was left frustrated at having to make another trip to Luton but this time on a midweek night.

Without wishing to insult anyone who lives in Luton, I like to keep my visits to the town to a bare minimum each season so having visited for a calledoff football match certainly hurts.
Conspiracy theories were rife after the call-off as rumours were coming out that no Luton Town directors had appeared at the game by then, no food for the match-day catering had been delivered and some of the Luton players were not in the best of moods regarding their pay or probably lack of it, backed up by the club entering administration the other week.
Also, Luton had a much more important cup match scheduled at home three days later against Forest with the winner playing Liverpool. A match they almost definitely did not want to be postponed.
Whether this is true or not who knows, but the local BBC radio team thought the pitch was definitely playable and the only problem area was a small corner that could have been worked on until kick off.
As luck would have it, as soon as the match was called off, the rain eased! Isn't that always the way? Given the great performance on the Tuesday night Millwall would definitely have liked to play, as would our supporters.
The team put in an excellent performance at Brisbane Road on the Tuesday night and the fans off the pitch produced a great, noisy atmosphere from the away end under the floodlights reminiscent of old days past.
That was definitely one of the most enjoyable away trips in some time and the fact that we made it back home just as quick as after a home game and in time for a quick pint before closing time made it even more enjoyable.
Centre-back Zak Whitbread scored the winner which capped a great man-of-the-match performance.
Zak has put in some excellent performances since he got back into the side a few weeks back following Richard Shaw's injury.
This has helped him to win the fans over and silence a significant portion who had unfairly targeted him as a boo-boy.
We should be reserving that treatment for the opposition instead!
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