Fulham were held to a goalless draw by Luton Town in a sunny stalemate at Craven Cottage this afternoon.
Home boss Micky Adams had described this fixture as ‘a yardstick’ of his side’s progress having been promoted from Division Three last season in the build-up but the Whites struggled to make much of an impression on a Hatters side, who coped without the services of Tony Thorpe and Ian Foster in the starting line-up. Lennie Lawrence’s outfit were then depleted as Graham Alexander injured his hamstring after ten minutes and had to limp out of the contest.
Visiting goalkeeper Kelvin Davis produced a brilliant save to keep out Aidan Newhouse’s drive in the fifth minute and the home fans were incensed when referee Mick Pierce gave a goalkick. That was the first of a series of dodgy decisions given by the official, who showed six yellow cards in a match that didn’t contain a dirty tackle. Davis, aged just 20, made further fine saves to deny Mike Conroy and Steve Hayward – but Luton grew into the game and created plenty of opportunities of their own.
David Oldfield, who replaced Thorpe after the highly-rated forward was ruled out with a thigh strain, wasn’t far away with a fine header in the second minute and then produced a peach of a through ball that Robbie Herrera to make a last-ditch tackle on Simon Davies. Oldfield was pulling the strings and unlocked the Fulham defence with another perfect pass to put Dwight Marshall in the clear two minutes before the break, only for Mark Walton to deny the Jamaican international as he went round the Fulham goalkeeper, who came through the Town youth set-up.
The Hatters dominated much of the second period with Walter doing wonderfully to keep out a Jonathan Douglas header after great work from Mitchell Thomas. The home number one then extended himself to deny Dwight Marshall, whose head from Jonathan Davies’ cross looked set to open the scoring. Fulham might have nicked it seven minutes from time had Danny Cullip converted a close-range header after the away defence went to sleep at a set-piece, but that would have been very harsh on Lawrence’s enterprising Luton side.
FULHAM: Walton; Lawrence, Herrera, Cullip, Morgan (McAree 61); Smith, Carpenter (Cockerill 72), Hayward, Brooker; Conroy (Scott 72), Newhouse.
BOOKED: Cullip, Conroy.
LUTON TOWN: Kelvin Davis; James, Alexander (McLaren 12), Johnson, Steve Davis, Thomas, Waddock; Oldfield, Davies (Harvey 81); Douglas (McGowan 60), Marshall.
BOOKED: Steve Davis, Thomas, Marshall.
REFEREE: Mick Pierce (Portsmouth)
ATTENDANCE: 8,142.
