Shaw: No luck involved in Canaries shock

There was nothing lucky about Luton’s 1-0 victory over Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday according to Town striker Jon Shaw, writes Mark Wood.

The Canaries may have had claims that Leon Barnett’s effort crossed the line after his first half header smashed a post and then saw late appeals for handball against Lathaniel Rowe-Turner waved away, but Shaw felt the Hatters had done enough to warrant victory.

He said: “They got a few blocks in. Yes, they will look at it and it looks a little bit lucky, but we went straight up the other end and had a great penalty shout with Andre. So we could have gone in 1-0 down, we could have gone in 1-0 up.

“But we kept our heads, we kept working hard. The second half I think a few of us actually found our second wind and we went again and we kicked on again, which is exactly what you need when you come to a place like this.

“The fans on the other side kept us going, we were only saying me and Andre (Gray) if we heard that every week I can’t see us ever dropping our shoulders, so what a day for everybody involved.”

The introduction of target man Grant Holt seemed to give the Canaries more of an impact up front and Shaw was impressed with the way that Town’s bargain squad had competed again City’s, assembled at the cost of millions.

He said: “As you saw when Grant comes on he comes straight across and pins our captain, flicks the ball inside.

“He holds it well, he’s strong, when those types of players aren’t on the pitch you automatically feel you’ve got a better chance.

“But when you look at the pace of Simeon Jackson and your Andrew Surman’s and (Anthony) Pilkington coming off of the bench, they’ve got goals everywhere.

“I think it’s more about how well we played. I’m sure their squad, they’d be happy with their 25 players than our 25.”

Chairman and TV celebrity Nick Owen missed the encounter, but Shaw believes he will be able to console himself with seeing the Hatters take on Millwall in the fifth round next moneht.

“I’m sure he’ll have a copy of the tape and he’ll have a lot of phonecalls to get through himself, so it is a shame but he’s going to get a great occasion in the next round,” he said.

Rather than having been taken lightly by the Canaries, Shaw believes it was just the time-honoured tale of the FA Cup coming to the fore again.

He added: “I’m not sure they took us lightly. I think Chris Hughton is a professional manager and I’m sure he drilled into them what we were going to be like.

“Whether the changes affected them and obviously the run they’re on with a bit of confidence and expected us to be what we are. Nobody’s going to expect a Conference side to be as organised or as hard working as we were.

“That’s what the cup is for us, we lift our game, and we go out there and give it everything we’ve got.

“I hope they come out of what they are doing because I do like Chris Hughton, what he did at Newcastle, the job that he had coming to here, he’s got a good team here and a great club so I hope he kicks on.

“But I don’t think it’s a case of them taking us lightly, I just think we played above and beyond.”