Town sweat on duo’s fitness as youngsters come into the frame

The game looks likely to come to early for attacker Aaron O’Connor as Luton’s list of unavailable players has again soared into double figures, and boss Gary Brabin hinted that some of Town’s talented youngsters could again be involved following their exploits at York on Saturday.

On the pair Brabin said: “It’s certainly not going to be long term. Whether we can get them right for Tuesday we will assess over the next 24, 48 hours.”

And on O’Connor, he continued: “I think his is a little bit worse than Robbie’s or Fleets’s. I’m not too confident he will be fit for Tuesday but we will see how he is for the weekend.”

He was disappointed that they were both missing for Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at York and believes that their unavailability made it an even better performance.

Brabin said: “Robbie, arguably his best performance was when he came on in the second half against Wrexham. That’s the Robbie Willmott that we know and he looked really confident and was getting at players and getting crosses in the box and that’s something when we’ve got a Robbie Willmott on form he is capable of. That was also a disappointment.

“Stuart Fleetwood, again, to only have the one striker fit going into Saturday’s game that’s another plus from the result and the performance.”

And on the injury and suspension crisis that’s currently engulfing the Hatters, Brabin continued: “It’s not ideal. We thought we had got over the worst of that at the start of the season.

“The injuries we’ve had are not pulls and strains in training they are impact injuries we are getting in games and that’s something we’ve tried to highlight. It’s something I’ve certainly mentioned when we’ve been having some players sent off.

“I don’t think it was a vicious game from either side, I thought it was a competitive game.

“I’m disappointed to have lost two players to that, but it’s also disappointing when you look at the injury list we’ve had and the amount of injuries in games.”

Both Keith Keane and Jake Howells were dismissed at the weekend, but Brabin is hopeful they should be both one match bans that will be served tomorrow night.

On the sendings off, he continued: “That’s another disappointment. The Jake one’s a reaction one, it’s happened so close. Again the letter of the law says it’s a sending off so you can’t argue.

“When you look at the challenge two minutes earlier on Charlie Henry, how you can deem that a booking and that a sending off, that for me is disappointing.

“I don’t want people getting sent off, I’m not saying that. But when you look at the two incidents it’s a strange one to call.”

As a result of Town’s limited numbers he could well turn to the likes of youngsters Jake Woolley and Jerry Nash.

Brabin said: “We’ve got a lot of confidence in some of the younger lads coming through. I thought Jake Wooley done excellent. I know he was only on for 10 minutes but I thought he ran his socks off and caused problems up front on his own.

“He has done well when he’s been given a chance in this FA Trophy and we have young Nashy as well who unfortunately never made the bench, but travelled with the group and was unlucky not to be involved.

“Again he’s another player so we have a lot of confidence in them coming through as well.”

He will also be able to turn to the likes of Craig McAllister, Andre Boucaud and Godfrey Poku who were all cup-tied at the weekend.

Brabin added: “It will be nice. Again we don’t know what we’ve lost. We’ve got a few knocks and bruises so today’s going to be getting what people need in preparation for tomorrow’s game and assessing what we’ve got left. It’s nice we’ve got those lads who were cup-tied to come into the squad.”