The clash of the division's big two provides a thrilling and see-sawing encounter that is settled by a late Luton goal.

For the second time this season Hull City and Luton Town demonstrated that they are the best two sides in the division as they served up a pulsating 90 minutes of ebb and flow football that kept all 9,500 supporters on the edge of their seats. Both sides had periods of almost total domination but both sides squandered several chances. In the end it was one late opening, as City strove to score a winner of their own, that settled the game for the home side. While City fans trudged dejectedly through the narrow streets that surround Kenilworth Road after the game, reflection in the morning will no doubt reveal that City put in a splendid shift that was worth a point, but that Luton are a similarly excellent side as well and deserve their position at the summit of League One.

Luton is perhaps not the most attractive town in the country but the compact area to the west of the centre that is home to Kenilworth Road is a mixture of thriving small shops, shabby and strange traditional outlets (e.g. Hamburger Café, last decorated in about 1951) and enjoys a vibrant atmosphere generated by the street-life of a mixture of ethnic and home-grown dwellers. An impromptu game of jumpers for goalposts football on the park featured faces of all colours and creeds, while it was a pleasure to report that the pitchside steward in front of me was a beautiful doe-eyed Asian lady in her early 20s that oozed with charm, efficiency and helpfulness. Successful social integration at work.

Somewhat bizarre pre-match policing methods - whereby one had to show your ticket to get on the street where the away turnstiles were built into rows of 1920s terrace houses, at which point tickets had to be showed once again - were only a minor pre-match irritant and a buzzing and expectant away support filled the low roofed stand behind one goal. On the south side a half decent post-war vintage stand was similarly heaving with home fans while on the other side the infamous conservatory showroom housed a hundred or so "executive" box dwellers. The term executive is used loosely, as close inspection revealed that the rooms behind the seating areas were bare of any fixtures and fittings and would be useful for nothing more than a half-time game of Twister.

Three o'clock chimes and Premiership list referee Matt Messias toots the game into action. And immediately it was apparent that Luton were keen, very keen, that a repeat of the return fixture at the KC - when the Tigers roared to a 3-0 lead after half an hour - was not repeated. They pressed City all over the pitch, denying strikers and midfielders even a second to dwell on the ball, then attacked with gusto and numbers down our flanks. The result was almost total domination of possession for the home side for the first 25 minutes. With battering ram Howard suspended Luton chose to use the guile of Croat Brkovic to unlock City's defences, and it was the diminutive Eastern European that was a constant threat as he flitted from wing to wing in a position that can only be described as "in the hole". Taking a pounding in the black and amber cause were:

Myhill
Stockdale Cort Delaney Edge
Green Ashbee Hessenthaler Lewis
Wilbraham Barmby

With Lewis filling the left wing berth, and doing a thoroughly solid job there I might add, it was left to Ashbee and Hessenthaler (roundly booed with every touch by the home support, no doubt a throwback to some dim and distant Priestfield misdemeanour) to operate the Tiger engine room. Ashbee was seriously off the pace in the opening minutes and Hessenthaler was bypassed too easily, a result of which Luton attacked pretty much at will through the tall and impressive Nicholls, who spread the ball wide regularly and to good effect. Luton often triple-teamed down the both wings with Brkovic supplementing wide midfielders and advanced full backs, meaning that both Edge and Stockdale struggled to man their stations effectively. A shower of crosses rained into the City box and it was a matter of some surprise that 2-3 of them were not converted to goals by the hungry Vine and the lissom Showumni. Brkovic wriggled free in the box on 6 minutes as he received a free-kick and his low shot trickled just wide. Seconds later Lewis and Barmby combined down the left and a shot hit the back of the near post stanchion. But that was merely a momentary relief as Luton attacked in waves. Myhill smothered a Robinson shot from the penalty spot that should have been directed to a corner of the net, Foley had a shot blocked by Ashbee after a Myhill fuble, Brkovic headed just over after Vine crossed dangerously from the right, Brkovic shot low but wide after cutting in from the right, Showumni shot tamely at Myhill after he turned Stockdale deep in the City box. There were probably more but I can only write so much down while simultaneously watching the game. Things came to a head on 25 minutes as Luton camped out in the City box for a good two minutes, but a series of blocked shots and scrambled clearances once more denied the Hatters a goal. Rather like a boxer that rains in punches on his foe for the first four rounds of a title fight, only to be rather disconcerted to see his bloodied opponent still stand resolutely before him, so Luton wilted ever so slightly as their onslaught failed to produce goals. This was no Ali-style rope-a-dope performance by the Tigers, we in no way invited Luton onto us, they simply out tackled and outplayed us for a sustained period and it was credit to defensive power and lady luck that we entered the second third of the game goalless.

As half-time approached the Tigers emerged blinking-eyed from their foxhole and started to exert a bit of counter-pressure on the home team. Much of the threat came down the City left as Barmby doubled up with Lewis to good effect. Junior may not have pace or a box of tricks to rely on, but he is strong and can shield the ball well before playing a telling pass. A couple of dangerous looking crosses were served up but the intended target Wilbraham was absent, having one of his "I've been shoved around too much so I'm going to loiter around in the wrong place" type of afternoons.

From a Luton corner a clearance came to Barmby midway between Myhill's goal and the halfway line. He proceeded to dribble elegantly up field for 50 yards or more as the Luton defence backed away in the manner of an inexperienced tourist faced with a growling Serengeti wildcat. With all 1,800 City fans imploring Barmby to shoot he instead twisted and angled his run 3-4 times in attempt to find space to play a colleague in on goal. Alas, no-one was around to receive the pass and the chance disappeared. In the next attack a fine passing move between Ashbee, Lewis and Barmby - the match of anything Luton had served up earlier in the half - resulted in Stockdale finding space on the right for a cross, which Green met with a forceful shot that was blocked by a lunging defender. As half time approached Ashbee was rather harshly booked for a lunging but fair tackle on Nicholls (the Luton midfielder, to his credit, implored the ref to show leniency) and for the resulting free kick 30 yards out we saw the rather bizarre spectacle of Cort and Delaney forming half of the defensive wall as Luton big guns lurked at the far post. Not surprisingly the clever Nicholls rejected the chance to shoot and rolled the ball to the advanced left back Davis, but his chance to cross - which would have seen the towering Coyne challenged by the less-than-towering Edge - was spoilt by a lack of close control. There is scouting the opposition's free-kick predilections and briefing one's defence accordingly - and then there is using crassly stupid ways of defying the common sense first laws of repelling attacking teams.

In the last minute Wilbraham sprang to life as he chested the ball down, shielded it well to keep possession then advanced on goal with menace with the floundering Coyne bobbing about in his wake. It was only when Albie was deep into opposition territory that he realised it was Myhill's goal that he was bearing down on, at which point he crumpled into a heap and claimed a doubtful free-kick. Whistler Messias waved away the protests and Luton had the ball on the edge of City's box with three attackers guarded by two defenders. It was a wasteful last kick of the half that saw Nicholls curve a shot just over Myhill's crossbar. On seeing this passage of play Taylor mentally took out a big red marker pen and drew a thick red line through Wilbraham's name on the team-sheet - moments later he did it literally as Facey emerged up front for the second half.

For this second half City went all twenty-first century and played a 4-3-2-1 Chelsea style system, with Ashbee, Hessenthaler and Lewis keeping it tight in midfield while Green and Barmby drifted around just behind front-man Facey. Well that's how it looked to me. And for the first time in Taylor's spell at the Tigers' helm, this formation worked as City achieved the sort of domination enjoyed in the first half hour by Luton. Barmby was at the centre of much of our good play, although once or twice he held the ball when an earlier pass seemed more threatening, most notably a three against two attack with Green finding acres of space down the inside right channel.

Barmby opened proceedings by receiving a throw-in out right and dribbling deep into the Luton box before seeing his shot smothered, then Green turned in the box after good work on the left by Lewis but his shot squirted several feet over the bar. Luton still carried a threat - Cort twice denied the dangerous Vine with last ditch tackles - but it was City who had the greater share of possession and chances. We had free-kicks that were blocked, canny balls played into the penalty area that just failed to find their targets and shots from distance that didn't trouble keeper Beresford. For all the attacking threat City barely had a shot on target that troubled the Luton keeper and this lack of ultimate potency in front of goal was the shortfall that undid the good work put in by a fired up City side. Just as Luton had wilted as their first half onslaught failed to deliver a goal, so did City as the second half reached its closing moments. Vine again threatened with strong and pacy running, while Lewis squandered two very difficult chances as he got onto the end of crosses from Stockdale and Barmby. But the chance of a snatched away win had started to fade and a goalless draw seemed to be the fair result.

But Luton have a reputation for late goals this season and they once again showed their 90 minutes stickability as Robinson was afforded the chance to cross from the right and Brkovic stole across the face of goal to nip between Cort and Delaney and nod home a near post header. I've no idea whether either centre back should have done better, but I do know that Edge and Lewis had time to cut out the cross, but failed. And so a silenced City support watched the three minutes of injury time with increasing despondency as the home stands rocked with the kind of full-throated celebration that suggested they knew that their side had been given a bloody good game by the Tigers, and that their late winner was a cause for major rejoicing.

So that's the wobbly spell that I predicted over. I suggested one win for the last five league games played and in the end we got one less than that. We now enter a run of fixtures against teams that are mostly beatable - only Tranmere and Bournemouth look real banana skins in the 9 games between now and the other side of Easter. It is these nine games that could decide our promotion or play-off fate, not the last five. For that we need Elliott back and fit, and I would venture that we need a new striker. Basically, we need Leroy Lita, although I accept that Bristol City may be unwilling to sell for anything other than silly money. If we can't get Lita for sensible money (and 750k looks eminently sensible to me in the modern day lower league transfer market) then we need someone like him. A pacy forward that can follow Barmby's promptings and encourage our supply line to return to the passing football that was cutting teams to ribbons before Christmas. Other than that, we have the personnel to carry us to the next League come May. Bring it on!

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Stockdale, Cort, Delaney, Edge; Green, Ashbee, Hessenthaler, Lewis; Barmby, Wilbraham.  Subs: Facey (for Wilbraham, 45), Price (for Hessenthaler, 89), Dawson, Duke, Hinds.

Goals: None

Booked: Ashbee

Sent Off: None

LUTON TOWN: Beresford, Neilson, Coyne, Davies, Davis, Nicholls, Foley, Robinson, Brkovic, Vine, Showumni.  Subs: Andrew (for Showumni, 79), O'Leary (for Brkovic, 89), Perrett, Keane, Seremet.

Goals: Brkovic 89

Booked: Davies, Davis, Vine

Sent Off: None

REFEREE: M Messias

ATTENDANCE: 9,500