After a mudbath at Brighton, Luton return home to face Ipswich Town, where a victory could see the Hatters leapfrog the tractor boys, who lie one point and one place in the table ahead of Luton.
Vital Quotes:
Mike Newell on Luton’s Official website:
‘We’ve had a chat with the lads to tell them it’s very important to finish on a high and to finish as high as we can in the table. There are some players who still have things to prove at this level and I don’t want to see us finish in the bottom half.
‘We would love to finish the season on a high and start next season on the back of some wins. We feel we’ve done OK this season without getting too carried away. ‘We have been in the top half all season. We had a good start, but then hit the wall a bit, which was probably to be expected given the squad we’ve got and the lack of strength in depth.’
Joe Royle in his pre-match interview:
‘While I’m not going to kid the fans and say that pushing for the Play-Offs is what we wanted at the start of the season, given the trouble we’ve had with injuries and suspensions it’s been a pretty good effort.
Referring to Luton he said:
‘They have been very strong at home and beat Reading recently and remind me of my Oldham team in many ways.
‘They are fearless in the way they just go at teams and I see them as good prospects for next year, especially if they can add a few to their numbers.
‘Mike Newell is one of the new kids on the block and it shows what a good job he has done there by the fact that his name comes up when a new job is up for grabs. That shows how far he has come.’
Luton Town Team News:
Paul Underwood misses the rest of the season with a broken arm sustained in the Brighton debacle. Kevin Nicholls is in light training and may return before the end of the season but will not feature in this match. Peter Holmes is likely to deputise for Unders.
Player to watch: Markus Heikkinen
Solid in defence, good distribution and could weigh in with a header from a set piece.
Ipswich Town Team News:
Jim Magilton, Ian Westlake, Nicky Forster, Sam Parkin and Gavin Williams are all injured and unavailable for this match.
Player to watch: Richard Naylor
Likely to be a handful
Match Prediction:
With neither team likely to make the play-offs I expect an open game and a good battle between Howard and De Vos. It would be no surprise if either or both got first use of the showers!
Luton should have too much at home against an injury hit Ipswich team.
Luton 2-0 Ipswich
Next Fixtures:
Sunday 9 April : The second best team in Hertfordshire (after Stevenage) Vicarage Road. 12 noon KO.
