Harriers tie will allow Hatters to recharge their batteries

Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Alfreton Town marked Luton’s fourth game in eight days, and with no midweek game, plus an FA Trophy tie at the weekend, a number of senior players may well get the chance to have a well-deserved rest.

An unusually relaxed fixture list over the festive period may well have lulled the Hatters into a false sense of security though as captain George Pilkington said: “When you’ve had a run of games where you’ve been playing one a week for quite a long period, which we have done the last couple of months as the fixtures were quite light, I think it’s more of a shock to the system.

“The body can cope with it though, you just need to get on with it.

“When you’re not used to it, it does catch up with you.

“A trip to Southport on a very heavy pitch in tough conditions does catch up on the body but we’ve got time to recover for the next game.

“It’s all part and parcel of football and nothing new to anybody so you can’t use that as an excuse and you still need to put a good shift in.”

Victory over Alfreton has put the Hatters in good stead going into their last 16 tie at Kidderminster on Saturday.

Pilkington added: “When you have a bit of breathing space it’s always nice to have a good result behind you.

“You don’t want to have had a bad result and be waiting a couple of weeks for the next league game. It does drive you and the atmosphere changes in training.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and the next league game, but we’ve got a good squad that will be chomping at the bit to play at Kidderminster.”

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