To no-one's great surprise, the 5pm deadline imposed by owner Michael Knighton passed without an agreement between the two men. Mr Knighton left Brunton Park shortly after 5pm after holding several hours of talks with Courtenay, an Irish businessmen believed to be worth millions. Courtenay's accountants were delayed in traffic getting to the ground and were still working on the process of due diligence as darkness descended on the stadium. Knighton has given them complete access to the last seven years of financial records but they are not understood to be looking at the holding company accounts. Courtenay and Knighton have a secrecy agreement which means details of the records being checked will not be made public. Courtenay was not giving much away as the talks continued during the afternoon. Knighton would only say that he was hopeful that a deal could finally be done but also insisted an unnamed third party was waiting in the wings with a "very serious" bid. He said the third party did not want to be revealed as they had requested complete confidentiality. The club's website was saying an announcement was likely to be made tommorrow. Roddy is disappointed with draw at Luton Manager Roddy Collins admitted he was disappointed with a point at Luton after his side had taken a shock lead through Steve Soley six minutes into the second half. And the United boss had no idea why Soley's earlier effort was chalked off. Referee Paul Alcock apparently ruled that Ian Stevens had strayed into an offside position. Luton had much more pressure throughout the game, with 20 goal attempts against Carlisle's 7. The Hatters also forced nine corners to United's 3. "Considering the personnel we have got and the injuries we have, I was pleased to get a point but I thought we frustrated them for half-an-hour and, when we got the goal, I thought we could hang on, so I'm bitterly disappointed we didn't," he said. "It was a sloppy goal to concede, as was the one we scored, but you have got to defend set-pieces a bit better than that. I also do not know why the other goal was disallowed. They are a quality side with big players who work very hard and did not take us lightly. We did not let them pass it around. They had a lot of possession early on but did not create many chances. We were up against quality but did our best and outplayed them at times." |
