Buckle retains belief that Hatters can upset the odds again

Boss Paul Buckle believes his side have every chance of continuing their stunning FA Cup run when they face Millwall at Kenilworth Road tomorrow, writes Mike Simmonds.

Town have already claimed the scalps of Premier League side Norwich and Championship outfit Wolves on their way to the fifth round and Buckle feels that home advantage could prove crucial.

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He said: “We won’t enter the pitch unless we feel we can win it and we certainly feel we can.

“The players can take a massive amount of encouragement from their performances in earlier rounds against higher opposition.

“There’s nothing better than playing at Kenilworth Road in front of a full house. It’s electric and we’ve seen that last time out.

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“We’ll be backed by a massive crowd on Saturday and that will be a massive advantage for us.

“We know our record at Kenilworth Road is very good. We know with the fans behind us which they are, certainly when we’re beating the likes of Norwich and Wolves.

“The roof is going to come off here if we can get a goal and stay in this game, they’ll back us all the way.

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“It would unbelievable, but that’s the romance of the cup, the nice part of it.

“What we’ve got to do now is focus on staying in the game again, keep in it early on and try to go through.

“The pressure is off us, if we go out on Saturday, no-one will raise an eyebrow. But at the same time, the players know they have won against higher opposition home and away and people might think that we can do it again.”

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Buckle will be forced into making alterations with Steve McNulty, Simon Ainge, Scott Neilson and Dave Martin all cup-tied, while Lathaniel Rowe-Turner is suspended.

Alex Lawless, the match winner against Wolves is available after his one-match ban, while the boss also admitted he may bring in Scott Rendell after his goalscoring heroics at Carrow Road.

Buckle said: “The team will change again, it’s nothing new to us because people are cup-tied.

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“Rendell springs to mind, because of his confidence with what he did in the last round, we get Lawless back and are still without Rowe-Turner.

“We’ve worked on that though, the players have taken on board what we’re going to be facing with Millwall.”

Buckle and his players go into the game on the back of a desperately disappointing 1-0 defeat at Dartford on Tuesday night and while not wanting to dwell on it, the reverse still clearly hurt Town’s boss.

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He added: “You have to move on quickly in football. Whether you’re winning or lost a couple.

“It’s not been brushed under the carpet at all, I wouldn’t do that. The players that came in Wednesday morning, warmed down and we got ourselves right.

“There’s only a short space of time to prepare for this game. It would have been nice to have had a week, like they (Millwall) have had, with it being an earlier kick off as well.

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“But I really trust this group we’ve got and know they wont let us down on Saturday.”

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