UPDATED: Hatters boss Still wary of any complacency versus rock-bottom Hyde

Cautious Town chief John Still is determined that his side won’t show any complacency when they entertain rock-bottom Hyde at Kenilworth Road on Saturday, writes Mark Wood.
Aldershot Town v Luton Town. Photos by Liam Smith. wk 41.Aldershot Town v Luton Town. Photos by Liam Smith. wk 41.
Aldershot Town v Luton Town. Photos by Liam Smith. wk 41.

The Tigers are yet to win this season, picking up just two points in 14 games, scoring eight times and conceding 34.

But boss John Still is determined that his side will not take the beleaguered northerners for granted at the weekend.

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He said: “It’s really funny, because my pal, I know he won quite a lot of money last year when Wigan won the cup against Manchester City and it just goes to show what happens doesn’t it.

“We’re playing 11 people Saturday, and you know what we’ve only got 11 as well.

“When you play 11 against 11 anything can happen. It’s amazing what can happen if you don’t respect the other team, or the other person and we have to make sure that we respect them, because you know what they’re going to win a game soon.

“Before the season ends they’re going to win a game and they’re going to get some more points and we have to make sure that we’re right on it and it’s not us.

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“Because you know what I’ve learnt over the years? The moment that you think that you’ve cracked it, you haven’t.

“I’ve seen so many teams in so many different sports, believe they’re going to win and not win.

“I’ve seen so many teams in so many different sports, have flying starts and struggle.

“I’ve seen so many teams in so many different sports, be at the back of the queue and gradually make the ground up.

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“Because you know what cream does? It rises to the top. Always the cream rises to the top.

“It never sinks, it only ever rises to the top, but it doesn’t rise to the top straight away.

“So maybe Hyde are going to put a great run together and start rising up the league, I don’t know.

“All I do know is we’re playing 11 people on Saturday and we’ve got to be ready and prepared because it’s a great opportunity for us to keep progressing.

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“We’ve shown we can not concede and we’ve shown that we can score, we have the recipe and we’ve got to keep working on that recipe and keep improving it.”

Like all their opponents Luton have had Hyde watched and Still warned that the first goal could be incredibly important, especially when it comes to the Tigers’ confidence,

He said: “It’s hard because we have had their games watched. We do look at the reports. But games sometimes can turn on such small things and confidence can be affected.

“And in a couple of games, conceding the first goal has really knocked them. If they get the first goal can they be a slightly different team? I don’t know.”

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And he also cautioned about reading too much into how teams have played in previous games.

Aldershot altered their system to match Luton’s on Tuesday night as they twice came from behind to claim a 3-3 draw in a topsy-turvy encounter at the Recreation Ground.

Still said: “We have to be aware that those things may well happen. They could come Saturday and play with a false nine.

“Who knows that they’re going to do? I don’t know. However they’ve done, they might come and be completely different, but we have to be capable of dealing with that.

“I think that all we can do is work on what we work on.

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“Give the players the information we think they should have, and then it’s down to the mental strength of the group that’s going to play to go out and do the job, whoever we play.”

But Still is confident his team won’t display any complacency and has been buoyed by the way they’ve triumphed over adversity so far this season.

“We’ve overcome lots of things this year,” he said. “We have overcome the opening day loss, where we were poor.

“We’ve overcome not scoring enough goals, we’ve overcome being behind in games, so those things they give you strength you know, they give you strength in adversity.

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“You get strength in adversity and sometimes you’ve got to fall off the bike to learn how to ride the bike properly.

“We’ve had adversity and we’ve overcome adversity and they’re the things that I think can teach you more than the words that I can use to players.

“As far as I’m concerned you play one team and you get three points, one point or no points.

“It doesn’t matter who you play, you’ve just got to try and get three points.”

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And he’s determined his side must continue to strive to take three points every week.

Still added: “Interestingly enough we got back late in the game against Aldershot, but we never changed our system to try and take a point.

“We never changed anything, we tried to go and win it, because I want to win. It’s really important we always try to win.

“We could have come back from 3-1 on Saturday to 3-3 and get to half time and think well that’s it, we’ve got something.

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“Hey, we haven’t been defending great so let’s not be too adventurous.

“We ended up with more forwards on the pitch because we want to win and it’s a mentality we have to have, a mentality the players have, we want to try and win.

“On Saturday’s we’ve got to try and win. We won’t win by being negative and we won’t win by not being prepared, I want to try and win.”