Modest skipper just happy to help out

IN typical self-effacing fashion, Hatters skipper George Pilkington shrugged off his two pieces of defensive brilliance that saved Town a point on Wednesday night, writes Mike Simmonds.

The first came when goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington needlessly dashed from his area allowing Adam Smith to lob the ball back for a certain goal, only to be denied by the intervention of a diving Luton captain on the line.

Pilkington said: “It was in the air for a long time.

“I was back-pedalling and back-pedalling, it was windy out there, but I managed to keep an eye on it and get it away.

“You help your mate out, and he has made some great saves over the last couple of games.

“We all make mistakes and all try to help each other out. If we were perfect footballers we’d be playing at a higher level.”

The second had Mansfield players appealing Matthew Green’s header had crossed the line before Pilkington scooped it away, but the centre-half said: “You sort of get the feeling, and from where I was, it didn’t look like it was in when I cleared it.

“That’s my job, that’s what I’m there to do.”

On the game itself, Pilkington appreciated it wasn’t an encounter for the purist as he said: “It was a hard-fought point, a very tough game and they made it tough for us.

“They’re a good team Mansfield, we’ve found that over the last couple of seasons. They’ve got strength throughout the team, they’re well organised.

“Both teams worked very hard to do the defensive side well as the scoreline suggests.

“It was a game of few chances, we should have probably had a penalty in the first half and maybe had a couple of half chances, but after that a 0-0 draw sums the game up.”

Town are back at home to struggling Alfreton on Saturday but Pilkington has warned his side not to take getting back to winning ways for granted.

He added: “I think we all know in this division, you take games easily at your own peril.

“They’ll be well up for the fight with Luton the team in this divison every player wants to beat.

“If we’re off our game we’ll be found as out we’ve found out this season.

“There’s very few teams who don’t have a good game against us, so we’ve got to make sure we’re ready.”

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