Benson and Lawless in contention for Bulls but Wall misses out

Hatters duo Paul Benson and Alex Lawless are back in contention for Saturday’s Skrill Premier trip to Hereford United, writes Mike Simmonds.
Alex WallAlex Wall
Alex Wall

The pair missed Tuesday night’s 4-0 win at Woking, but speaking to the press this afternoon, boss John Still said: “They’ve both done some training today, so we’ll have to look tomorrow.

“I’m anxious to not put people in who are not fit, we’ve done it with Jon Shaw as we didn’t have another choice, but it’s not fair on the player.

“So we will really have to wait see, but they’ve both done some training.”

On Lawless, Still thought that maybe missing the midweek victory might have actually worked in his favour.

He continued: “He woke up Tuesday morning and had a back problem.

“It’s a lot, lot better and if he’s made the progress tomorrow he’s made over the last couple of days, he’ll be better.

“He came back into the team and did really, really well. He slowed down a little bit for the second game, but he’s been out for a while.

“Maybe not playing the other night might have been the right thing for him, as I’m not saying he wouldn’t have played if he wasn’t fit as he probably would have, but looking back, that might have been not such a bad thing.”

One blow for Still is another absence for striker Alex Wall.

The forward has missed the last three games with suspension after his red card at Wrexham, but injured himself during a training game in the week.

Still said: “Alex Wall’s injured. He got injured in a training game we had on Wednesday, as he hurt his ankle, so not just yet.

“I’m not sure how long it will be, but he won’t be fit Saturday and I’m very frustrated, very frustrated about that.”

Defender Anthony Charles is also pushing for a recall as Still said: “Anthony is training. He played a development game here on Wednesday.

“He’s probably close to consideration. I would like to give him one more hard week, but if I had a gun to my head and had to play him, I’d play him because his injury is fine.”

There was also good news regarding striker Jon Shaw too as Still said: “Jon Shaw is training, he’s not doing everything, but next week he’ll be full tilt and if we can get a really good week into him, give him a little bit of game to, then probably two weeks.

“I’m looking forward to the day I’ve got Jon Shaw, Paul Benson and Alex Wall, what I call traditional centre forwards available.

“I like that type of player myself, so competition for that spot would be great.”

One player who is out for the foreseeable future though is summer signing Danny Fitzsimons as Still added: “I’ve put no timescale on Danny Fitzsimons to be honest, it would unfair on him.

“I don’t want to put him under pressure, I want to get him fit. He’s training with the physio, he’s not training with us.

“He needs to build it up a bit and when he’s built up, we’ll have a look.

“That could result in an operation, but we’re not keen on doing it at moment, so we’ll go back and have a look when he’s built up his quads.”

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