Shaw and O’Donnell fit to face the Imps

The pair had been doubts for Saturday’s postponed clash at Nuneaton Town, but boss Paul Buckle confirmed they were in contention to face the Imps.

He said: “He (Shaw) is going to be OK. JJ has been back in training. He is going to be back as well which is great.”

And after the weekend’s game was postponed due to a frozen pitch, preparation for this match has proven difficult.

“It’s frustrating,” said Buckle. “You never want games called off, especially with the position we are in at the moment. We are on catch-up anyway.

“It’s not been easy to prepare, we’ve not been able to train on grass, it’s covered in snow.

“We haven’t even been able to train on astroturf - we’ve trained in the snow.

“We’ve coped with what we’ve got to contend with and been as professional as we can.”

Kenilworth Road is set for a pitch inspection tomorrow morning and Buckle is hopeful it will go ahead after fans today helped to clear the surface of snow.

On whether he thought it would happen, Buckle said: “I hope so. You never can tell, it’s up to the referee.

“We’ve had lots of volunteers in helping to clear the snow and our club’s gone all out to get the game on and hopefully it will pay off.”

Lincoln boss David Holdsworth asserted Luton are struggling to live up to expectations going into the game.

Town are currently one point off the play-offs and seven points off top spot, but have games in hand over all the teams above them.

Holdsworth, whose team lost 2-1 to the Hatters at Sincil Bank 2-1 back in October, said: “The expectations on Luton are very high now.

“They have an exceptional squad and making signings like Jon Shaw, Scott Rendell and Andre Gray are massive statements of intent.

“There is a great deal of quality on the books and everybody who is looking on is probably thinking they should be in the play-offs at the very least.

“The aspirations are there about the club and you can understand that some of the supporters believe that Luton are bigger than a number of clubs in League Two.

“It is about how manager Paul Buckle deals with that and also about him delivering on them.

“Buckle has a lot of quality in his team, so you should not underestimate them.

“Even if they are maybe not achieving the expectations that are set for them, they are very capable players.”

Buckle took on board Holdsworth’s comments and admitted his side now have to start making the most of their games in hand.

He added: “We’ve got to make it count now. I never like to comment on another team but I take David’s point.

“We are looking forward to the game tomorrow now and have been in good form at home.”