Luton Town 1-3 Brighton: The Computer & The Lion see off Hatters
Has anyone ever been excited by a trip to Luton before? Is this what 18 months of restrictions does to you, going to the place that gave us Vauxhall motors, Stacey Dooley and not much else and coming away thrilled with the day out for Luton Town 1-3 Brighton?
The last time that an away end full of Albion supporters had been able to watch the Seagulls was Saturday 8th March 2020, a 0-0 draw at Wolves.
You have to go back to Thursday 5th December 2019 to find the last time Brighton fans had cheered a victory on the road, that famous evening when a first win away at one of the big six was banked via a 2-1 success against Arsenal.
Actually being able to get the train and witness an away day, even when it meant going through someone’s front room to enter the stadium and watching from arguably the worst stand in the Football League for travelling fans was only part of the reason to get excited by what we saw at Kenilworth Road though.
The main source of fun came from one new signing and one player who barely featured after arriving in January. We are talking about The Computer Enock Mwepu and the Lion of Judah Percy Tau, both performing in front of Brighton supporters for the first time and both getting on the scoresheet.
Whisper it quietly, but the Albion looked clinical at Kenilworth Road. Even Aaron Connolly, a man who held three of the six nominations for our WAB Miss of the Season 2020-21 award, produced a cool, calm and collected finish to get the party started. He earned the right to tell everyone about it in the discotheques of Worthing on Saturday night.
Shall we talk about those goals first? Captain Adam Lallana was the architect of the first, playing a brilliant through ball to send Connolly racing through.
It was the sort of opportunity we saw Connolly miss on copious occasions last season, most memorably when he managed to put a shot out for a throw away at Arsenal in the final game of the campaign.
Here though he showed that not only can he hit the target, but he can also beat the goalkeeper. Simon Sluga was left with no chance and Connolly ran away to cup his ear in front of the Luton fans for his trademark celebration.
Some would say that Connolly scoring against Luton is a sign that the Championship is his level. If he had a season on loan in the division, he would score regularly, regain confidence, grow up and come back to the Amex in 2021-22 perhaps ready to deliver on the promise he has shown in fleeting glimpses during his Albion career so far.
The chances of Connolly departing will have reduced now thanks to the news that Danny Welbeck will miss the start of the season injured. If Brighton do not bring in a new striker, then he will have to remain with the club, in which case let us hope his goal against Luton is a sign of an improved campaign lying ahead.
He needs to do more than manage one more Premier League goal than Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker over the course of a year, as was the case in 2020-21.
More clinicalness up front is one area where Brighton need to improve. Another – which does not get talked about enough – is goals from midfield. Aside from Pascal Gross, no central midfielder managed more than one league goal last season.
If somebody in that area of the pitch could start chipping in with four or five a year, it would help ease the burden on the strikers. Step forward, Mwepu.
The Computer has made quite an impression since his £22 million move from Red Bull Salzburg with his enthusiasm and his belief of the impact he can have in English football. Again, it was only against Championship opponents but his goal in Luton 1-3 Brighton backed up those claims.
Mwepu doubled the advantage when Solly March escaped down the left from another perfect Lallana through ball and delivered a low cross to the edge of the box straight into the path of Mwepu.
Another sort of opportunity we had seen Brighton players miss more often than they had scored in 2020-21, but it posed no problems to the new man who expertly swept an effort across Sluga and into the bottom right corner. Mwepu was left grinning like a Cheshire cat as his teammates congratulated him.
Florin Andone and Tau formed a new-look strike partnership after the break and it took them just 18 minutes to have an impact, notching the final goal in Luton 1-3 Brighton.
Yves Bissouma smashed a long ball out of defence which Tau collected inside his own half, exchanging a quick one-two with Andone to open up some space down the left.
Tau still had plenty to do, so it was just as well that he suddenly managed to channel the spirit of Lionel Messi, embarking on a mazy run that led a couple of Luton defenders on a merry dance before beating Sluga for the goal of the game.
He then produced a frankly ridiculous celebration that looked like how a 52-year-old father-in-law-to-be dances in the disco room at Pryzm when on his son-in-law-to-be’s stag do. How can you not love the Lion of Judah?
If it was strange seeing an Albion attack dismantle opponents, then watching a shaky defence in Luton 1-3 Brighton was nearly as weird given how good Robert Sanchez and the three centre backs had been in the second half of last season.
With Lewis Dunk still injured, Adam Webster being described as unavailable and Ben White now officially a £50 million Arsenal player after a transfer saga that went on for longer than the One Hundred Year War, perhaps it should have come as no surprise to see an unfamiliar defence struggling at times.
Joel Veltman, Shane Duffy and Dan Burn began the match together with Burn being the culprit for the Luton goal on the stroke of half time. His ill-advised attempts to chip a pass across the face of his own goal resulted in a slice straight to Harry Cornick who made no mistake when beating Sanchez.
Sanchez meanwhile fell awkwardly when spreading himself at the feet of Cornick in an attempt to keep out the Luton striker’s effort. The Brighton goalkeeper did not return after the break, leaving us to cross our fingers that Jason Steele playing 45 minutes was always the plan and not as a result of an injury which would leave the Albion looking light in the netminder department.
There were a couple of other hairy moments at the wrong end of the pitch for Brighton. Cornick should have given Luton the lead inside of five minutes but his scuffed shot was kept out by the legs of Sanchez after Elijah Adebayo escaped the attentions of Burn in the box.
An attempted back header from March after Brighton had gone 1-0 ahead lacked the required pace to reach Sanchez, who was subsequently forced into another good save from the lively Cornick.
Mistakes like that are what pre-season is for though. Much better to have Burn shaking off his rustiness in a meaningless game against Championship opposition than have him put Ashley Barnes in one-on-one with Sanchez at Turf Moor on the opening day of the season.
Combine the quality of finishing on display in Luton 1-3 Brighton with the defensive steel shown in the second half of last season and Brighton could be on for a very good 2021-22 campaign. How else can you explain people actually enjoying themselves in Luton?
Who knows, the next time we visit Luton might well be to get a cheap Wizz-Air flight to somewhere in Hungary or Lithuania for Thursday night football. We are not ones for getting carried away, but the Lion, the Computer and Graham Potter’s beard are taking us to Europe.
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