Luton 2, Leicester 1, Positives and Negatives, Player Ratings and Match Report, League One Fixture

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Russell Martin kept his eleven from Bromley and Doncaster, hoping he would be given another pleasent performance, but this time he had not done his homework properly.

Leicester were under constant pressure from start. Luton stormed forward, Leicester far from able to get on the front foot, giving Alex McCarthy a chance to shine early on. He kept Leicester in the game with a number of magnificant saves.

Kenilworth Road is not the easiest place to come to, having a home team aggressive on the ball, watching on as the Leicester midfield looked totally helpless and being taken out, man by man, with Luton manager Jack Wilshire’s game plan close to perfect.

With all of these attempts missed, Leicester slowly managed to get their act together, and late on in first half everyone believed Leicester had taken the lead from an Emil Riis finish, but late on and after the referee looked to have agreed on the goal, he decided to change his decision after a talk with the linesman.

Then instead Luton scored from a Caleb Okoli blunder and massive mistake, not being able to place his massive feet correctly, the ball being cought as Luton’s Nakhi Wells scored with a clinical finish. Luton had taken the lead, as they massivly deserved, after having blown a number of chances earlier in the game. 1-0 half time to the home side.

A late defeat ⏹️#LUTLEI | @BCGame pic.twitter.com/KIj2zjdxCb
— Leicester City (@LCFC) October 24, 2026

Russell Martin made two substitutions at half-time, bringing on Wes Burns and Will Smallbone to replace Louis Page and Caleb Okoli, who both struggled. However, Wes Burns still appeared ineffective, lacking proper scanning when he makes his pass, as it often just vanish into nothing.

Leicester had several attacks, but Emil Riis wasn’t where the ball was going. Passes were made into the box well, but there were no strikers or other players in the right positions, highlighting a learning opportunity.

In this second half, enough opportunities to score, but nothing happened before Leicester were down to ten men. John Lundstram was given a second yellow and had to leave the field in the 85th minute. Russell Martin had done more changes, Liam Cullen, BDCR and Conor Chaplin had all come on. Cullen used his chance wisely, scoring Leicester’s equalizer in the 90th minute.

Instead of settling for a point, Leicester, with ten men, looked eager to go for a second and was heavily punished, Luton getting chances on counter attacks and scoring ther 2-1 winning goal far into stoppage time.

Leicester manager Russell Martin made a clever change, but still no points and a very dissappointing afternoon at Kenilworth Road, Leicester not at all able to build on their two last games.

Next up is Wigan on Tuesday, and Saturday playing Stevenage, both games at home. Huge opportunities to get things turned.

Positives

Liam Cullen scoring a fantastic goal
Harry Souttar and Alex McCarthy showing improvement and being on their best today
Will Alves trying his best, hopefully building confidence
Second half performance was good enough to have secured all three points
Russell Martin changing the team for the second half, this worked as a major positive
Will Smallbone getting minutes, showing he can be a valuable asset for the rest of this season

Negatives

John Lundstram had a poor game as captain. He was unlucky to be sent off, but his tackle was reckless given he already had a yellow card.
Sammy Braybrooke, Louis Page and Kamari Doyle never managed to take the game into their controll, all of them having performances far bellow their highest standard
Not able to defend with a low block in the end to secure a point, strangely not happening
Wes Burns passing is horrible, he looks so far from his highest potential
Passing and playing fluidly looks very difficult for this group of players
Caleb Okoli is unlucky and very clumsy on the ball
Missing Admir Bristric on the bench, having no alternative striker option is a failure and totally wrong
Emil Riis looked tired and uninterested, but scoring again, the disallowed goal was incorrect.

Line Up:
McCarthy 7, Okoli 4, Thomas 6, O’Hora 6, Souttar 6, Lundstram 4, Braybrooke 5, Page 4, Riis 4, Doyle 4, Alves 6 Subs: Cullen, Chaplin, Smallbone 6, BDCR, Burns 5