Fringe players come to the fore as Neilson is happy with Waders win

PLAYING a large number of senior players in the Bedfordshire Senior Cup will help to keep them up to speed for Town’s important play-off run-in according to assistant manager Alan Neilson, writes Mark Wood.

He guided Luton to a 1-0 victory at Biggleswade Town on Wednesday night as the Hatters won through to the final at Kenilworth Road.

Town had named an experienced side for the encounter, intersperesed with a number of youngsters, and he believed it was the perfect kind of game to keep Luton’s senior players match fit in.

He said: “We’ve got a squad of about 20, 21 first team players who are fit at the minute.

“Hopefully we’ll have a few more fit in a few weeks time and get the whole squad fit.

“The team will change between now and the end of the season and we’ve got nine massive games to play.

“The side will change so we’ve got to keep the lads who are on the fringe of things really fit.

“It’s a good run out for the lads. We haven’t had a reserve game for quite a while now.

“We’ve got three games in the next three weeks, but it’s a good start. A clean sheet, Shane (Blackett) did well, Macca (Craig McAllister) got 60 minutes, Godfrey (Poku) 90 minutes, Woolley got 60 minutes but that’s because of his injury he didn’t play 90 minutes - a little twist of his ankle.

“Obviously it’s not too bad, but the physios will assess it in the morning.

“It’s a semi-final and they were flying and the pitch was a little bit bobbly. It was a good workout, the senior lads didn’t get any injuries, there was a little one with Jake, but fingers crossed it won’t be too bad.”

And he praised Charlie Henry’s superb winning strike that came after just seven minutes on Wednesday night.

Neilson added: “It was a great, great strike from Charlie. He’s come inside, did it in training on Monday, he’s come inside and banged it in the top corner.

“A pity we couldn’t get the second goal to relax a little bit. They’re a decent side, they worked hard and made it hard for us.

“The pitch, like I said before wasn’t great, but the young lads did a good job and so did the senior lads.”

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