Shaw warns against ‘end of the world’ mentality

Both sides were backed to be fighting it out for promotion at the start of the season and, although the encounter is sure to prove important, consistency of results is the target for the experienced front man.

He said: “We are five wins out of six now, which is great form going up against a side that are well-fancied and have got good backing behind them.

“It will be a tough place to go, but we are looking forward to it and we don’t fear anybody.

“It is (important), but I don’t think it’s the end of the world. You have to be consistent through the season.

“If we win five in a row and then we lose to Forest Green and win another five in a row, people won’t look at the Forest Green game as a big loss.

“People will see it on the day that we haven’t beaten one of the top teams.

“But the run that we’re on, we fancy ourselves against anybody. So it’s going to be a big game, a big occasion.

“What we need to do is treat it like any other game, go out there and play our football and hopefully come away with the result.

“We’ve got to deal with the pressure of being up there as a top team and it doesn’t matter who you are playing against.

“When it’s a team that people are tipping to win the league, you know it also gives it that in the head that you are going to beat that team.

“If you beat them, it’s a massive confidence-boost to go on then and start turning teams over.”

Shaw is hoping a huge Hatters following can help to roar them on to victory at the New Lawn as he added: “It always does help. I say this quite a lot, having a big following is fantastic.

“I’ve been at a club where the following were fantastic but relatively small, but now you can hear them wherever you go because they generally match or outnumber the home fans.

“If they’re behind us it always helps. That’s what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to go out there and work hard the first 10 or 15 minutes, get them right behind us and they’ll spur us on.”

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