Tyler looks to break new ground after ‘spooky’ draw

The 35-year-old stopper has played over 600 senior games but revealed that he had never made it past the fourth round stage ahead of Saturday’s game.

He said: “Fourth round. We lost to Newcastle 4-2 at home at Peterborough.

“It was on Sky Sports. We got them back to 2-2 and they got a dubious penalty which their main man Mr (Alan) Shearer put in the bottom corner and then they scored again.

“That was a great game, a great atmosphere, but that’s the furthest I’ve been.

“You never know, we’ll see what happens at a quarter to five.”

Having helped the Hatters to defeat Championship Wolves in the previous round, Tyler’s wish came true when the Hatters drew his hometown club in the fourth round.

And it was all the spookier for the long time Peterborough United keeper, as the Canaries had dumped his former club out in the last round, beating them 3-0 at London Road.

“It was mad because obviously when I turned over to Sky Sports Norwich had already been pulled out and then we were, and I was like, wow, brilliant,” he said.

“Obviously Peterborough played them in the last round so it was a bit spooky in a way.

“I’m delighted and it will be a great day out for us.

“Everyone wanted to play a Premiership club and Norwich is a great club, it’s a family club.

“It’s a game where you’ve got a chance to win, obviously they’re not in great form at the moment but we’ll respect them because of where they are and we’ll do our utmost to put in a good performance for all 4,000 supporters coming.”

Modest Tyler was in superb form as he pulled off several great saves to deny Wolves as Luton triumphed 1-0 in the previous round.

And he’s hoping he and his defensive colleagues can reproduce that form, saying: “It would be nice. It was down to the boys in front of me, they put in a great shift and hopefully we’ll repeat the performance.

“I had a quiet game, nothing unusually that I don’t normally do. But like I said the boys in front of me they put in a great shift and defended well. Hopefully we can repeat the performance.”

Since that Wolves game the Hatters’ defence has looked particularly solid and Tyler believes they are benefiting from some continuity.

He said: “Snoop’s (Lathaniel Rowe-Turner) a great ally for Janos (Kovacs). Janos can go and win the ball. Snoop’s good in the air but Janos he’s the big guy he’ll go and win everything.

“Snoop’s brilliant, covers well, there’s Ronnie (Henry) and Greggers (Grag Taylor) has come back as well and he’s been on fire.

“It’s nice to have a settled back four and it’s shown in the last four games where we’ve only conceded one goal.

“Hopefully long may that continue and hopefully we can have a clean sheet on Saturday.

“If you have a gameplan and stick to it, be solid, any team will be hard to break down.

“And with the pace and flair of our front four they can score goals. We’ll be solid and we’ll be working hard the next two days on our gameplan and go from there.”

Tyler’s also looking forward to the chance to be underdogs again, a tag the Hatters have rarely enjoyed during his three-and-a-half years at the club.

He said: “It’s nice to be the underdogs like against Wolves.

“We’re in good form at the moment, we won’t be scared of them, we’ll respect them, but it’s nice just to go there with no pressure.

“Everyone will expect us to lose because they are a Premiership club and we are a Conference team. We will go there and we’ll play well and stick to our gameplan and we’ll see what happens at a quarter to five.

“We’ll treat it like we did last round. The staff and all of that have done their homework on who are their danger men and what they do etc. We will have our team meeting and then go out on to the training pitch to work out a way to stop it.

“You know they’ve got good players so it’s not a case of he does this, he does that, they are all quality players and that’s why they play in the Premier League.

“But we’ll have our gameplan and go from here.”

Town are one of just two Conference teams left in the competition, alongside Macclesfield, and, although Tyler would relish seeing Luton’s name in the headlines, he is still focused on the goal of promotion.

He added: “It’s nice that Luton are getting back on the map again. Obviously everybody knows what the goal is this year.

“It’s a nice distraction the cup, but me personally I’d take this promotion instead of the cup.

“But this is why you play football to have big games like this, but the bread and butter is next Saturday away to Barrow.”