Neilson: Pick up the win for Brabin

CARETAKER manager Alan Neilson is hoping that his players can pick up three points at Gateshead tomorrow evening as a tribute to sacked manager Gary Brabin, writes Mike Simmonds.

Brabin was relieved of his duties on Saturday after a 2-1 defeat to York saw Hatters fall further away from the play-off places.

Southport’s defeat at Hayes & Yeading at the weekend, means victory for Luton would see the climb back into the top five as Neilson said: “We’re going up to to get three points, get them for Gary Brabin, who brought the nucleus of the squad together, win this game, and the other six games.

“They should do it for all the managers. Me, Richard Money, Gary Brabin, the new manager, whoever that’s going to be.”

Neilson will be picking the team with Paul Carden and although they won’t be making wholesale changes to the side, he admitted the selection could well differ from Brabin’s last team against York.

He said: “We trained this afternoon and worked on a few little things. There might be one or two changes, but the squad will be largely same squad.

“Myself, Cards and Dimi (Kharine) will look at the squad and as Brabs has said before, we’ve got a good squad here.

“I believe we’ve got a squad capable of getting out of this league and it’s up to me and Cards to pick the right side, the right squad, to get the right result.

“We discussed our team, Cards looked at it, I looked at it and it was virtually the same. Our minds are thinking along the same lines, so hopefully those lines can go and get the the right performance.”

Carden believes that they will be taking plenty of the ideas that Brabin had been preaching, but with some slight alterations.

He said: “If everyone sat here would write a team out, they would put a different team out, that’s footballing opinion.

“Me and Neils’ was quite similar, one maybe two differences in our team and we’ve gone along those lines.

“It will probably be slightly different to Gary’s, but in terms of how we do things, a lot of the principles that Gary had, that Neils has, that I have myself, we want to play football, we want to be solid, we want to win games and we want to attack teams.

“I think that’s always been the case so that’s what we want to do tomorrow.”

Although Town have a poor record against the top Conference sides this season, they have already beaten fellow play-off chasers Gateshead twice, including a 5-1 thumping at home.

Carden continued: “We’ve played arguably two of our best performances again them, here in the league and in the Trophy.

“So we know what they’re about. They’ve had a few additions since then and we know a couple of weeks ago, it looked like they would fall away from the play-off spots, but because teams keep dropping points, they’re slowly clawing their way back into contention.

“It’s going to be a real good game. They’re going to have points to prove against us because of the two previous games, but if the lads have got any character and got anything about them, they’ll want to put in a good show.

“To be honest, if you’re not doing it for anybody else but yourself, that should take you a long way.

“If you concentrate on what your job is and stick to it then you’re doing it for the team as well.

“Whoever the lads want to play for, as long as they’re doing it for themselves at least, we should get a good outcome.”

Carden, who had been Brabin’s assistant at Cambridge, believes it does take time for the squad to get over a manager’s departure, but the impending game will help sharpen their focus.

He added: “There’s always a bit of a strange atmosphere when the manager has left. It’s happened on numerous occasions and it takes a couple of days to wash that away.

“Because of the game, it’s a long journey and hopefully another distraction so everyone can focus on what their job is.

“They can reflect on past performances and hopefully it gives players enough time to get their mind on the game and and play the way everyone expects them too and knows they can.”

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