Phil SumblerThe Hatters against the Swans. Luton against Swansea. England against Wales. Doesn’t matter which way you want to dress this one up, it is the first of twelve possible cup finals between now and May for Steve Cooper’s side.
The Swans are on the road again tomorrow as they complete the second of what is a run of three successive road trips before the small matter of the South Wales derby in just over one week’s time. Sandwiched in between the midweek game at Blackburn and next midweek at Bournemouth, this will certainly be a game that the Swans are targeting for three points and it will be three points that puts us clear in second place at least for a couple of hours thanks to our lunchtime Sky TV kick off time.
It has been a particularly difficult time for Steve Cooper in recent weeks. Whilst the Swans continue to pick up points (13 of the last 21) the lack of a really strong performance in that time has attracted much criticism and it seems that almost every manager in the division wants to suggest we are getting soft penalties given our recent record of four in our last four games. It is difficult to know whether that is partly mind games designed to cast doubt over any defensive assaults as we attack in games but either way it is slightly tedious to hear and time that people concentrated on their own teams rather than the fact that we are winning penalties and consequently winning points.
The football season seems to have moved at a great rate of knots to the last dozen games. Part of that will be aided by the fact that we play Saturday, midweek almost every week and, despite tomorrow being just the 14th of the month, it is the fourth of six games that we will play this month before the international break.
This, though, is definitely one of those games where you know that the nature of the performance is almost as important as the result itself and that is what we have to hope comes through tomorrow and that we can send out a message to those around us that we are back, and this time we mean business.
Team News
Luton could welcome back Glen Rea for this game although they will still be without central defenders Tom Lockyer and Sonny Bradley.
For the Swans Ryan Bennett looks almost certain to come back into the starting line up as Steve Cooper plans to rest Marc Guehi for the game due to his slight injury niggle picked up in midweek.
What the managers say
Luton manager Nathan Jones: “The away game was a real tough game we conceded early which kind of put us on the back foot and then we were probably the better team for large periods of the game until the sending off and even then, we still pushed and pushed. It is going to be a good game, but it’s a tough game, we know that.
“Swansea are doing really well, if they play well and are fluent, they can score and hurt you, when they’re not, they’re grinding out results, so they’re proving to be a very, very adequate Championship side.”
Steve Cooper: “we have said from day one that it’s a challenge that we want to embrace and we want to tackle head on.
“This week in particular with Blackburn then on to Luton, then to Bournemouth, but it’s not a surprise, we know what’s coming and if we can get through it, then it’ll be brilliant and that’s our aim.”
The game at Kenilworth Road kicks off at 12.15pm and coverage is on Sky Sports.
