Buckle looks to pen a new history for Hatters

Forgetting the painful past and creating a new history is top of manager Paul Buckle’s agenda ahead of the new season, writes Mark Wood.

Speaking at Thursday’s press conference, he said: “I think the key is, and as difficult as it is, is to try and forget the past.

“It’s tough, it’s been tough on the supporters they’ve had a rough ride and that’s for sure.

“I would just like say let’s forget the past now, let’s try and create some new history.

“Let’s try and stick together. This is a brand new group, I’m new to the job and we are trying out hearts out to try and get us back into the Football League.

“But we are going to need their support. Every Saturday, or every Tuesday, wherever we are, we are going to need them.

“They’ve been brilliant and we’re going to need them if we’re going to do anything this year.”

Buckle is still driven by the pain of May’s play-off final defeat, but he is pleased with the squad he has assembled in the summer, which has seen 16 players leave Kenilworth Road and eight players arrive.

He continued: “I came into the club and the first thing was to try and get wins, we needed wins desperately to try and get ourselves in the play-offs.

“We did that. We then beat Wrexham over two legs and it was fantastic to get into the final.

“And then we let ourselves down at Wembley in many ways. We know what happened with the goal, but for me it was another games to assess players, asses us in a big-game environment and I always said I was going to give myself a good week to 10 days before I made any decisions on the players.

“Because that group gave me everything last year when I came in. We were very, very close, but it’s a fresh start now and I’m pleased with the business we’ve done in the summer.

“And also very pleased with the balance we’ve got between the old players who were here last year and the new ones.

“I spoke about Wembley the other day and obviously that still burns because of the manner of which we lost.

“But it’s gone now. I never meant that on the players, I meant that more on myself.

“The players have fitted in nicely and no-one’s spoken about the defeat there and we are in good shape.

“All of the players have bonded very well and in the games have looked good.

“We’ve just got to take that form into the season now and we had a chat this morning about it and said we would rather be in form than out of form going into the season.

“Certainly I don’t want us to change anything, I want us to continue from where we left off against Orient.”

And the Hatters face an immensely busy start to the season with three games in the space of six days, but Buckle is determined to firstly focus on the challenge posed by the Tynesiders.

He said: “It’s a tough game. The first game of the season everyone always wants to get up and running and get off to a good start and we’re no different.

“We have three games in quick succession, which is incredible,I think it’s three in six days, which is incredible they come up so quickly after pre-season.

“That’s what’s been put our way and we’ve got to go full on, but we mustn’t look at the other two.

“We must look solely at Gateshead and try and pick up the three points.”

And he added: “Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, it’s no ideal. It doesn’t sort of make sense really.

“I don’t pick the fixture, we’ve just got to get on with it. The pleasing thing for me is the team’s looking very fit and sharp and we must take confidence from what we’ve done in pre-season.

“Because we’ve played a lot of different games, a lot of different challenges and I feel the players have come through it.

“We’ve worked really, really hard in our training to try and get a good understanding.

“I want us to be positive. The one thing I want us to do this year is to be positive.

“I don’t want us stepping back in any games. I want us to step forward, attack teams and go for the win every single game.”