Fleets fit to face the Bucks but Morgan-Smith again misses out

But Luton will still be without top scorer Amari Morgan-Smith, who is likely to be ruled out with a hamstring injury for several more weeks.

Speaking at today’s press conference, assistant manager Alan Neilson said: “Fleets got quite a heavy kick by their centre-half.

“I think Fleets should be training this morning so everything looks rosy with the forwards except Amari of course.

“Tommy’s (Wright) back in training now, he trained last Friday. Tommy’s back training with the squad.

“Amari’s still a few weeks away. Fingers cross, he’s seeing the specialist today, and hopefully we’ll get the go-ahead to push on with Amrai.

“He pulled his hamstring, and a hamstring normally takes anything between four and six weeks. It’s the one he re-injured again, so fingers crossed he will be back sooner rather than later.

“I think he could be back before Christmas. We are looking now at three weeks, he might have knockback or a setback or he might recover quicker because he is still a young lad.”

Midfield dynamo Keith Keane is also back in the mix as Town’s injury situation continues to ease.

Neilson continued: “Keith was out training at the end of last week so Keano is probably fit now.

“Shane (Blackett) played last week for the reserves but got a chest infection so Shane didn’t travel because he was ill but Shane should be back training this morning.”

And Neilson is hopeful the Hatters will be able to build on Saturday’s 93rd-minute winner at Newport as Luton look to get back into the promotion mix.

He continued: “After the game Saturday the lads were buzzing. We knew it was a tough game and a heavier pitch. We have to look in training and make sure the lads aren’t tired in training, but the pleasing thing now is we are getting a lot of the squad members fit again now and we can look at the whole squad and say if he’s a bit tired we can change him and change him. The lads put a magnificent 90 minutes, or I should say 93 minutes in on Saturday.

“It proved the fitness was good and we kept on going on a heavier pitch in windy conditions and I think fans sometimes don’t realise you look at the pitch and it was very heavy. There hadn’t been a lot of rain but I spoke to their goalkeeper before the game and he said the pitch is always heavy, so a really pleasing performance.

“We always think we are going to score a goal with the players we’ve got in the team. It’s pleasing to put one over on them.

“Last season it was them who scored a late goal against us and this year we’ve turned it around.

“Once we finish a game we always look at how the team who are our next opponents played. They won 1-0 at Barrow which is a good result as Barrow are playing very well at the moment. You look at the stats, it looked like they were under a lot of pressure but they’ve held out, kept a clean sheet and scored the winner with 10 men.

“They’ve come up last season, the team are on a high and they try and play football the right way.

“He (AFC manager Andy Sinton) did play the passing game, he was a winger, very skilful and I’ve actually played against him before.

“Once I’ve put him in the stands at Spurs so he will probably try to kick me!

“They try and play the right way. A lot teams in our league do try to play the right way and it will be a tough game.”

Town put in a solid performance to triumph at the New Bucks Head Stadium earlier in the season and Neilson is looking for more of the same this time out.

He said: “We went out there and did a professional job at their place like we did on Saturday and came away with a 2-1 win.

“Fingers crossed we will approach it as we do all the games, look at them and see how they play. It won’t be an easy game as all games at home aren’t.

“All the games in our league are tough games, especially when teams come to Kenilworth Road because they lift games. Even away from home. Every team we play always lifts their game and it’s difficult.

“I don’t know how they will play against us but teams do come to Kenilworth Road and sit back and put their team against us.

“Hopefully we break through early on and go on from there.”

But Luton may have to be patient in order to break down the visitors, as Neilson said: “Teams sometimes come and sit back and try and soak up some pressure and we need to make sure create enough chances, take those chances and push on from there.

“You see in games this season where we play against teams who are in the bottom half of the table they come and hold ship for 30-35 minutes, 40 minutes and in the second half we go and score four or five goals.

“Fingers crossed we can do that in the first half, but it will be very tough.

“We look at all opponents, we look at the pluses and the negatives and go from there.”

The Bucks will be missing striker Chris Sharp who was sent off in Saturday’s game and Neilson thinks he could be a big miss for the visitors.

He said: “He played against us earlier in the season for TNS. We looked at him and thought he played very well in that game in pre-season. He has gone there and done very well for them.

“He will be a miss, they haven’t got a massive squad so he will be a miss and hopefully we can take advantage of that.”

Luton, meanwhile, have plenty of options despite having a number of players out on loan.

Neilson siad: “We’ve got a squad of players now. You look at the reserve team and we played Stevenage away last week and won 4-1 and it was a really strong side.

“It’s pleasing we’ve got these players and they are competing for places.

“Everybody wants to play games but we can only pick 11 players on a teamsheet and five subs. It’s good to keep them playing competitive games, of course we’re playing in the reserve league but it’s not a massive reserve league.

“So they’ve gone out on loan to play games and keep fit if when they’re needed.”

And he was particularly delighted with the options up front and how Ryan Brunt and Danny Crow came off the bench to combine to score the winner at the weekend.

Neilson said: “We sit down and go through things. We thought the lads at Cambridge, especially in the first half last week, were absolutely superb and Azza and Fleets were the same.

“It’s pleasing to have two strikers like Brunt and Crow on the bench and they’ve both come in and done well for the goal.

“We spoke in training last week about doing certain things and Dancey’s (James Dance) got past and Brunty’s got in the right position and got a little flick and it’s dropped to Crowy and Crowy’s put it in the back of the net.”

Victory would also set the Hatters up nicely for Saturday FA Cup second round home tie against high-flying League Two team Cheltenham Town.

He added: “We take one game at a time. The league’s the important thing, but it’s a good game for the lads and once we can get through tomorrow night we can look forward to FA Cup game against Cheltenham who are playing very well indeed.”