Thanks to Malcolm Fawcett, of the London Branch, for giving us his thoughts from last night.

To find out what the London Branch could mean for you, particularly as an exiled fan, click HERE.

Compared to Saturday's fireworks display against Leeds United, this was more like a damp squib of a match.

It was a rather tired and jaded United side that took on a very robust and lively Luton Town with United's midfield extraordinarily absent in an encounter which provided more chances for the home side to wrap up the three points than Carlisle.

United were led out by a London Branch mascot, Sam Clarkson to a cacophony of noise from the United fans behind the goal. Two coachloads from Carlisle were swelled by many London Branch members, their friends, work colleagues, families and household pets.

Things started well enough with United enjoying long spells of possession and knocking the ball about confidently but Luton's physical strength and constant closing down eventually forced United into strings of errors with the controlled football giving way to hasty clearances into touch and long balls hit aimlessly for the forwards to chase.

Luton's best chance came from a corner which Bell met on the full and was arrowing goalbound but must have hit the bar and bounced safely back into Kieren's hands. For many of us behind the goal it appeared as if the ball had hit the roof of the net and come back, but it must just have been the reverberation of the bar causing an optical illusion leaving the United fans gasping and shaking their heads in disbelief.

In the second half things did not improve. Luton appeared to grow in confidence and began to move the ball around and find space around the park and for long periods of the game United were forced to defend and seemed to want more time on the ball than Luton would allow them. When United came forward, however, the combination of Garner and Graham caused panic in the defence and the longer the game went on the more likely it looked that United would score with Luton running out of ideas and the killer pass.

United's best chance fell to Danny Graham who broke free on the right after a great run by Raven and rather than looking for a player free in the centre (there were two - Garner and Raven) he elected to go for goal from a rather acute angle. Despite hitting it well enough the ball just fizzed past the post with the keeper beaten and the Luton defence at sixes and sevens.

The most exciting moment of the second half was when a rocket from a nearby fireworks display dropped on the roof of the stand and then discharged its bombs into the crowd and onto the pitch almost giving John Ward a heart attack in the process. The game was held up while the stewards were sent to investigate. The crowd reacted by chanting 'We want more fireworks!', but the players refused to see the irony.

Despite the stoppage, timewasting, injuries and substitutions the officials added only two minutes to the game, presumably to spare the crowd further tedium.

As it happened the result was enough to keep United at the top of the league and if you had asked anyone a week ago whether they would accept a draw at Luton they would have bitten your hand off, but after the heroics of Saturday the United fans expected more and left feeling a little disappointed. However, just like the rockets bursting over the stand, it was a case of back to earth with a bump and although this was never a spectacle it was a satisfactory case of job done.

Malcolm Fawcett