Wednesday stifle Luton's charge

The largest league crowd of the weekend, 20,806, saw a poor first half, in which the only real excitement came when a Chris Marsden chip into the area was skilfully controlled by Lee Peacock on his chest, allowing him to swivel and hit a cracking shot from 15 yards past Marlon Beresford in the Luton goal but against the post.

Both teams failure to find any fluency was not helped by whistle happy referee Mr C Boyeson, who made some strange decisions throughout.

He headed for the tunnel at half-time to a chorus from the Wednesday fans of. "You don't know what you‚re doing."

Things improved in the second half and Luton should have grabbed the lead in the first minute when Steve Howard, who Wednesday tried to buy in the summer, was clear ten yards out, but dragged his shot well wide.

On 55 minutes Lee Peacock wasted a glorious chance, by failing to get enough height on a cross as three Wednesday forwards waited in the penalty box.

Four minutes later a Steven MacLean shot was charged down for a corner, from which Rowan Vine was only denied a shooting opportunity by an excellent tackle by Chris Marsden. A minute later Marsden was booked for a poor challenge on Steve Robinson.

Luton were being the more creative and with 66 minutes gone Chris Coyne was left unchallenged eight yards out, but his downward header was cleared three yards out by Lee Bullen.

Two minutes later the home team should have scored when a Marsden cross eluded the Luton defenders, but MacLean, two yards out, failed to follow the flight of the ball and it skimmed off the top of his head.

On 72 minutes Vine was booked for diving, probably one of the few decision Mr Boyeson got right all afternoon and immediately after, only a magnificent tackle by Bullen prevented him from shooting from range, after he had muscled himself into a scoring position.

Then a Wednesday free kick floated to the back post where it was headed back across the goal by Patrick Collins to fall just behind Bullen and, as he swivelled to shoot, Coyne kicked cleared.

A last minute scramble in the Wednesday box ended when David Lucas dived on the ball to ensure the match ended goalless.