Buckle hopeful over Mendy return

The French-born Guinea-Bissau international was missing from Town’s side that was held to a 2-2 draw by the Magpies in the first round of the FA Trophy on Tuesday night.

Buckle said: “He’s just taken a bang to the leg. It was serious enough to keep him out so I’m hopeful he will be all right for Saturday.”

Striker Jon Shaw was also still missing and Buckle was hopeful that his side would be able to take more of their chances at the weekend, after missing a ‘truckload’ at the Avenue Stadium.

Andre Gray was lucky to see his early miss turned in by home defender Neil Martin as he missed a hatful of chance on the night.

Fellow striker Scott Rendell also saw a great chance saved with the score at 2-1, while substitute Stuart Fleetwood made an immediate impact from the bench with Luton’s second.

Buckle continued: “I think both teams have gained from tonight. We’ve had a good look at them, they’ve had a good look at us, but we knew their strengths before the game anyway.

“I’m very pleased with the way we performed. I’m very pleased with the chances we created on their goal.

“I don’t think Plymouth when they came, I know Plymouth were down to 10 men, but they didn’t create as many chances as we did.

“We created an absolute truckload of chances tonight and that’s what we’ve got to go and do again on Saturday.

“We’ve got to play exactly the same, we’ve to go and get crosses into the box and cause them problems.

“On another day, Andre Gray, Fleetwood or Rendell or whoever we play will stick that in the back of the net.”

Buckle admitted Gray would probably have been disappointed with his finishing, but hailed his all-round contribution.

He said: “I would have thought he is, of course. He should have maybe put that first one away that was an own goal in the end.

“We had the first chance to put it in and I thought it surprised the Dorchester defender as much as us that we’d missed it.

“There wasn’t a spell in the game where we didn’t turn up tonight and just took a liberty or looked a soft touch, we looked the real deal tonight.

“We turned up we done a lot of things right and deserved to be in the lead, but what we didn’t do was march on, we then took the game by the scruff of the neck and we fired a lot of good balls along the 18 yard box.

“Andre got free with great balls in behind them and that was the key tonight, we got the ball in behind them.

“On another day he’ll hit the back of the net, I was just waiting for the net to bulge we had that many chances. You are always worried you might not come away with the win and go through.

“On reflection I’m very pleased with the performance levels again and the application of the players, but at the same time we’re all disappointed we haven’t seen it over the line.

“But you have to look at Gray’s all-round performance. His finishing let him down tonight, he knows that.

“But if you look at Gray’s all-round performance, he gets us up the pitch.

“Andre was a handful, he caused havoc, he looked exciting, he looked dangerous and on another day we’d have been well away.

“We have to take it on the chin as always, we’ll always do that and look forward to Saturday now.

“There’s lots of positives tonight. The important thing for me is to not let a last minute goal deflate me and deflate the team.

“Because sometimes you have to take a draw, it’s a draw. Stuart’s come on, and we’d though he’d got us the win because he’s clinical in that sort of position.”

There were also more competitive minutes for James Dance who came on as an 86th-minute sub as he continues his comeback from a long-standing ankle injury.

He replaced Alex Lawless who has also recently struggled with injury, and Buckle didn’t believe that substitution had an bearing on the result.

He added: “Alex has been injured over the past couple of weeks and has just come back to fitness.

“He was limping a bit near the end there and I trust Dancey to come on. I think the first thing James Dance done was fantastic when he put Fleets clean through.

“He’s had no bearing on the goal at all, collectively as a team we had the opportunity to keep the ball in the corner.

“We had the chance to run the clock down and it didn’t happen and in the end Ainge is very disappointed he has lost his man and that is something we need to be better on, we know that.

“But at the same time over the whole game if we play like that and continue to stick together and have this mentality at the club we’ll have a real chance.”