Hatters boss sets his sights on a Wembley final

Hatters are three games from an appearance at the home of football, although their progress is starting to affect their league campaign.

Trips to Barrow, Darlington and Gateshead have been switched to midweek games and Brabin said: “It messes with your fixtures, but another way of looking at it is at the end of the season and we’ve had success at Wembley and got promotion.

“That’s a positive way of looking at it. We don’t go into any game wanting to throw it because it messes with our fixtures.

“We go to win every game and that’s certainly the case. The nearer we get to the Trophy Final it becomes more and more exciting. The games are coming thick and fast and we want to put in a good performance.”

Although Adam Watkins and Jake Howells are available despite their international call-ups next week, meaning then would miss any potential replay, Brabin has a number of players ruled out for the clash on Saturday as he said: (James) Dance, (Dan) Gleeson, (Amari) Morgan-Smith, Dan Walker are definitely out.

“Curtis (Osano) and Dean Beckwirth are struggling as well. Curtis’ is still his hamstring he had to come off with last week and Deano is a recurring calf injury.

“We’ve got a couple cup-tied (Andre Boucaud, Craig McAllister and Godfrey Poku), so we’ll make a couple of changes, but it’s important we don’t disrupt our performance and results by getting the lads some games.”

Brabin has been keen to give Town’s promising youngsters a chance, handing out a number of debuts in previous rounds, but conceded he might opt for experience at home to one of the Blue Square Bet Premier play-off challengers.

He continued: “The players have been there on merit, but I think we’ve played a stronger team in each round and that’s not going to change.

“It’s the toughest opposition we’ve played against and although we’re not going to just ignore the young players, we’ll see what side we pick tomorrow.”

Hatters should come up against a player tomorrow they had hoped would be spearheading their promotion charge in Jon Shaw.

The striker has 28 goals for Heed this season, and Town failed with a number of bids during the transfer window as Brabin said: “We don’t take any player lightly. We know the strengths and weaknesses of every side.

“I think a lot’s been made that it came out that Jon Shaw was one of our targets and I think it’s there for everyone to see, that he’s been leading scorer all season and a big part of their success.”

The Tynesiders moved to within a point of the Conference play-offs with a fine 2-1 win at York City on Wednesday, and Brabin expects them to be taking the quarter-final Trophy tie very seriously.

He added: “I think they’ll field a full team. They have aspirations of promotion as do we and I’m sure they’d love to get to a Trophy final as we do too.

“They want to be in with the pacesetters and will be disappointed they’ve falled a little bit behind but they’re still in a similar position as us.”

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