Palmer only looking up during run-in

A 14th draw of the campaign at the weekend saw Town remain fifth in the table, six points adrift of the top three, but only two points above eight-placed Blackpool who visit Kenilworth Road soon.

Ahead of tonight’s trip to Newport, where victory would see Luton halve the deficit to Portsmouth, and give them some breathing space over the chasing pack as well, Palmer said: “We’re only looking upwards, so we’re looking to get three points off the top three and I believe we’ll do that.

“From there we’ve got eight games to kick on. The gaffer made that clear after the game that we’ve got to start taking these chances to climb the table.

“We didn’t today, (against Exeter) but we’ve got nine games left to make sure we do that and hopefully we go on a run, but it’s not going to come without working hard.”

Heading to Newport, who are in real danger of relegation, some seve points adrift of safety, Palmer added: “We can’t dwell on it (Exeter draw), the gaffer’s made that clear, we’ve got to pick ourselves up and make sure we do everything properly on Tuesday.

“They’ll (Newport) fully believe they can stay up. Everyone in that position wants to make sure they can, so it’s going to be tough, it’s not going to be easy at all.

“We’ve just got to make sure we prepare right and everyone recovers properly.

It’s a horrible place to go to, and we’ll have to pull up our socks, get on with and bring home the three points.”