Experienced Still looking for victory at Grimsby

Town manager John Still will use all his experience to help Hatters’ secure their place in the Football League this season, writes Mike Simmonds.
Hatters boss John StillHatters boss John Still
Hatters boss John Still

Luton head to Grimsby tonight and could move 17 points clear of nearest rivals Cambridge United with a victory at Blundell Park.

Hatters ended a three game winless run with a 3-0 triumph over Chester on Saturday, but once again struggled to hit their stride in the first half.

Still said: “I’m experienced enough to understand we’re at a stage in the season where there’s a little bit of nerves and that’s a skill, overcoming the nerves.

“Against Woking we didn’t play well, there’s going to be a time you don’t play well at all.

“Did we play well at Salisbury? I didn’t think we played great, but we were competitive, worked hard, ground a point out.

“It was very similar to Cambridge and there was only three shots in the Cambridge game so we must have done something right, whereas against Woking we didn’t do a lot right.

“I put the game against Chester into the Alfreton one where they were going to come and defend, broke the game up, and I think were 15 fouls in something like 35 minutes.

“Did we play great on Saturday? No, but second half even before we scored, we were a different team as we got our tempo up.

“When teams try to slow it down we’ve got to get our tempo up.

“It’s not always easy, and this isn’t a moan about anything, but pitches are very bobbly at the moment, that touch pass, pass move isn’t always easy.

“Sometimes you’ve got to play a bit longer which in an ideal world we wouldn’t do.

“But sometimes you have to do it and regain it in their third, second half we did that really well.”

Still rotated his midfield for the visit of City, resting Cameron McGeehan, while Andy Parry started his first game since November.

On his reasons for changing, the boss continued: “We’ve tried to give people the right amount of rest and right amount of games.

“That’s (midfield) a high energy area. We’ve got good legs there without having too much experience.

“It’s just a matter really of trying to find the right team for the right day.

“We know we have good legs, as we showed in some of the FA Trophy games with the younger ones against Wrexham, I think we overrun them and did well in the both games against Cambridge.

“So I’m really comfortable about that side of it. We’ll pick the team that we want to go and try to win.

“If we win it’s fantastic. Everything we do now is about getting as many points as we can to get ourselves over the line.”

Even though a draw would be considered by some a decent return at Blundell Park, a place when Luton haven’t enjoyed the best of results recently, Still confirmed victory is all that’s on his mind.

He added: “You try and have your team and if it’s going for you, you can get enough people forward. If it’s not going for you, you can get enough people behind the ball.

“You’ve just got to try and get as many points as you can, but I think we’ve shown in all the games, we set out to win.

“Games change, sometimes you don’t, even when we weren’t scoring we set out to win, and we’ll set out to win.”

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