The second half began with Wycombe making a change, Huggins for Quitirna, but it was City who struck again first from an effort that probably had no right to creep in. Hackett grabbed his second just eight minutes after the restart, reacting quickest to a loose ball and guiding it into the corner to make it 3-0. The keeper will have wanted to do better, but at that point we felt rampant, as if we might go on to get five or six. The fear of them doing a double over us dissipated, and the record unbeaten run began to loom large.
Wycombe had other ideas and began to make a real game of it. Josh Scowen pulled one back four minutes later with a really scruffy goal. Elerewe headed a ball against his own post, and then reacted more slowly than Josh Scowen as it bounded back into the six-yard box. Scowen poked home, but it felt like a mere consolation. We’ve been solid all season, there was no reason to think we’d do anything other than score again. Rob Street came close to restoring the three-goal cushion, just missing the right-hand side of Will Norris’s goal, while Wickens was forced into another save as the visitors crept into things.
For me, the big change came on 68 minutes. Player of the Season Conor McGrandles was taken off (as was the Magic Man Moylan), and while Jefferies and Bayliss didn’t do anything wrong, our structure just felt like it went. Wycombe had more of the ball and began to pepper our box with crosses. We couldn’t get out, we couldn’t get on the ball and everything began to feel edgy. The League One Trophy was in a backroom waiting to be presented, and yet suddenly the game of football became important. It was easy to forget there was a game, until the result looked in doubt.
When Wycombe made it 3-2 on 74 minutes through Skura after a goalmouth scramble, the mood shifted. It was a simple corner routine, the sort we’ve dealt with all season, and yet this time, we didn’t. Taylor Allen was involved, but Scowen (I think) crossed it in. Bayliss got in ahead of Elerewe, but like the defending for the first goal, the ball squirted off towards goal, where Skura was on hand to poke home. What had been a celebration was now a contest again.
Shout out to George Wickens, who conceded three goals and is a huge shout for Man of the Match. He punched well, kicked well and made some good stops. Yes, it’s his job, but he did his job superbly, and probably won’t get the credit that this performance deserves. Mind you, he loses points for resplendent green shirt, socks and black shorts. All green? Yes please.
For nine minutes, things felt nervous. Wycombe pressed hard, and it felt like maybe, just maybe, the last few weeks were catching up with this remarkable group of players. Looking to alleviate pressure, Wickens launched a ball forward and in doing so, moved on to four assists for the season. Tendayi Darikwa found himself through one-on-one, but waited patiently for the ball to drop right. It was a great run from the skipper, with numerous players offside as the ball was played, but he came from deep. He kept his composure, despite the onrushing Connor Taylor, slotting into the bottom corner to make it 4-2 and restore some breathing room.
That felt like a rubber stamp. In a second half where the Champions wobbled, the fourth felt like a big, final exhale, a sigh of relief that these pesky extras had finally been put to bed, but no, there was still time for more drama. Hackett departed to a standing ovation, and still Wycombe pulled one back deep into stoppage time through Cauley Woodrow, it proved nothing more than a late footnote. Quitirna and Scowen combined again, and again, it was Elerewe who might have done better, Woodrow coming in from his blindside to touch home at the far post.
There was no ‘Rochdale v York’ late drama, not that it would have really mattered if there was. In the end, it was a fittingly chaotic way to bring up 100 points. Not perfect, not polished, but full of character, and ultimately, another win for a side that just keeps finding a way.
There is now just one game to go in this unbelievable season, one more chapter to be written as we edge towards 29 matches (once the record in the top flight for being unbeaten from the start of the season, if I recall correctly). Luton managed 28 in 2018/19, a figure that we wouldn’t have been concerned with back in November. Back then, we had play-off aspirations, a slightly divided fanbase and maybe a degree of pessimism. That doesn’t sound like it was the case behind the scenes, by the way. It sounds to me like Darikwa, Bradley, and the other elder statesmen of the team could see what the squad was capable of.
28 games later, and we all know. They’re capable of great things, and next week in Burslem, they have a chance to rewrite history, again.
Up the Champions.
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