Buckle looks to put one over on his old friend Hughton

Their two teams may be worlds apart at present, with Luton languishing in the Blue Square Bet Premier and Norwich riding high in the Premier League, but there is plenty of shared history between the two clubs and the two bosses.

And for one day they will be on a level playing field when Buckle’s massive underdogs take on the might of the Canaries.

Buckle revealed that Hughton is an old team-mate of his ahead of the encounter, saying: “It goes back years ago at Brentford where I started my career and Chris came in as a senior pro then and he was a great leader at the time, a really good professional and it’s no surprise to me that he’s gone on to do really well in management.

“We are good friends, but obviously I’m sure at three o’clock that will be put aside because he will be desperate to go through.

“It was a season or just less - it’s quite a long time ago!

“I used to travel in with him actually. He used to pick me up in the morning.”

And straight after the draw was made Hughton got in touch with Buckle, although he hasn’t heard from him since.

Buckle continued: “I got a text from him straight after the draw was made, but I’ve not had any texts or phonecalls since!

“It said well done mate for getting through, and we look forward to welcoming you to Carrow. That was nice of him.

“He’ll be ready, his team will be ready. He’s a real good friend and a very good manager.”

And Buckle isn’t surprised that Hughton has gone on to be a successful top flight manager.

He added: “Because he came from Tottenham at the time he was a big signing for us. A wealth of experience and a real, real good guy, a proper man.

“He’s a fantastic man and the great thing about Chris is he’s not changed, all the years I’ve known him he’s been really successful as a manager and he’s not changed.

“I think now it’s not surprised me because he played for such a long time and if you do that you have to manage yourself and you have to live right and be a good pro.

“So it doesn’t surprise me that he’s taken that on and led by example and taken that into coaching and managing.

“He coached for quite a long time at Tottenham and now he’s become a very good manager, so no it doesn’t surprise me at all.”