Carlisle Utd no match for free-scoring hosts as Luton go top of League Two

Keith Curle's team did not help themselves at times, particularly when Luton turned a one-goal lead into two and made an already tough job harder. By the end the margin could have been greater, had Jack Bonham not saved a penalty.

Curle's decision to alter the defensive formation which had been so resolute on the road was also something to query at full-time. But still - Luton have made a habit of annihilating teams at their home ground this season and it's unlikely United will be the last victims.

The other disappointment from Carlisle's point of view was that they couldn't threaten Marek Stech's goal enough when their attacking qualities really had to come out to play. There was build-up work, some of it bright, but not the precision in the box that Nathan Jones' team have in spades.

Andrew Shinnie's opener was an exercise in accurate finishing. Luton's second, from Dan Potts, was a basic set-piece that got through far too simply. Harry Cornick's third was a counter-attacking clincher late in the day. At least Bonham, guessing right at Danny Hylton's spot-kick, prevented further damage to Carlisle's goal difference.

At other times, though, when the game's pattern was there to be set, Luton's movement and invention on the ball were superior. They are flying high in League Two for a reason and something will have to go badly amiss if such a bright attacking force do not go up a division come May.

How United would have performed had Curle stuck with his back four, and had he not surprisingly omitted James Brown, we will never know. All we do know is their six-game unbeaten run was ended emphatically and now they must start another, against lower opposition, Morecambe, on Saturday.

Setting the scene for this encounter didn't appear hard to do. The leading scorers in England against a side in prime defensive form on the road. Hylton and company versus Clint Hill and the others in United's back line, which had kept four clean sheets in their last five trips.

Here, though, it was defence where Curle paid new attention, recalling Tom Miller and Tom Parkes, and benching Brown. Shaun Miller also replaced Richie Bennett in attack.

Perhaps in light of their extra man at the back, it was not a free-flowing start. With Miller and Danny Grainger the wing-backs in a five-man rearguard, though, the best early openings were in fact Carlisle's, including a third-minute counter-attack built on Shaun Miller's hold-up play, Reggie Lambe's run and cross, and Hallam Hope's header which was too straight to trouble Stech.

Carlisle showed some good early pressing from here, and they broke again a couple of useful times, particularly when Shaun Miller cut smartly inside from the right and saw his shot deflected just over the bar.

Luton tried to work their way forward with greater pace as the game settled, and United needed Hill and Gary Liddle to block shots from Potts and Luke Berry. Their five-man defiance, though, did not last much longer, for when the hosts sent the ball into the left of Carlisle's box, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu left it for Shinnie, and the Scot made maximum use of his space to curl a fine finish across Bonham.

Given confidence by this goal, there were further examples of Luton's attacking creativity, such as a superb disguised ball by Berry that saw Shinnie set up another chance, and a chip from Elliot Lee that eluded Hylton by a whisker.

In these stages it was easy to see how Jones' team have racked up so many goals and with United also giving away possession too easily down the middle at times, there were always likely to be more opportunities.

Curle, though, will still curse the manner of the hosts' second, when Alan Sheehan curled a free-kick into the box, a host of orange shirts had got comfortably behind Carlisle's defensive line and one of them, Potts, made short work of the header.

A simple set-piece, rather than subtlety or the range of nuisances Hylton can cause, had done for United here, and it was already a tall order with an hour to play. There were times when United won the ball high up the pitch and showed some promising interplay, but seldom did it lead to serious opportunities.

Half a chance for Hope, which Stech grabbed at the second attempt, was the best of it, while the half ended in a tetchy manner, Sheehan and Hope both booked after the latter threw the ball at the former, unhappy at the defender's boot coming in as the Carlisle man fell on the ball after a foul.

Ref Chris Sarginson also saw fit to speak to both benches, while Grainger let Hylton know what he thought of a tumble by the striker in the corner. What United really had to do was find a way to cut through this and get back into a game which, given the opposition, had the potential to get further away from them.

The introduction of Kelvin Etuhu for Parkes, and a switch to 4-4-2 that saw Jones move to the left, was Curle's first attempt at a route back, but it didn’t show immediate signs, and when Luton again zipped the ball forward, it needed Hill to get in the way of Mpanzu's shot.

Carlisle, by contrast, were simply not finding enough quality to get through the home defence, Shaun Miller and Hope strangers to the ball at times as the hosts fancied a third. One rare attempt from Hope summed up United's frustration, high and wide into the away end.

Another, from Grainger, was even worse, swerving out for a throw after his initial free-kick had struck the wall. There was, at least, a degree of better build-up finally, as the hour mark came and went. Carlisle's shape appeared more effective, but they lacked composure any time they ventured into Luton's box.

Sheehan prevented Lambe from reaching a deflection in front of goal - fairly, Sarginson reckoned - while Jones saw one of a few attempts deflected over. Luton were sitting deeper in this period and as Lambe had a chance taken off his toe, you were tempted to wonder what one Carlisle goal could yet to do to the contest.

It needed a break. As the clock ticked on, it wouldn't arrive. A scramble in the home box eluded United while a Grainger free-kick, cleanly struck, was at saveable height for Stech.

Luton countered keenly at times even as much of the game was now being played in the Hatters half. Curle sent on Richie Bennett - but then, thoughts of a fightback were killed, as sub Harry Cornick streaked clear down the right onto Jack Stacey's ball, miles behind United's offside line, and took time before slotting it inside the near post.

That was that - and it should have been more, for when Hylton battled past Grainger and then sped beyond Hill, the veteran's challenge brought the striker down. Credit to Bonham for guessing correctly to save Hylton's penalty. It was, though, a hollow reprieve.