Hatters prepare for York fightback

The Minstermen suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat on Saturday to Tamworth leaving the Bootham Crescent side six points away from fifth spot with four games remaining.

York will be without former Hatters target Dave McGurk who is out for the rest of the season with ankle ligament damage, and Brabin said: “They had a shock result on Saturday, but they’re a good side. They’ve come from near the bottom of the league, (they) were in the bottom six positions at one point and have sustained a good challenge.

“I’m sure they haven’t given up the ghost and we’re expecting a good test as they’ve got some good players.”

A win for Town would all but secure their play-off position, and it’s something that Brabin is looking to achieve, while also showcasing their recent positivity both on and off the pitch.

He said: “Meeting a team pushing for promotion is going to be a good test for us. We want to keep this run at the moment. If we can just step up the tempo a little bit and keep this going then I’m confident with this group of players we can finish the job off.

“I think it’s good we’re playing against top sides. We’ve got everyone performing at a really high level. I’ve put a bit more responsibility on our back four and they have responded with three clean sheets.

“We’ve tried to play more attacking football which I think everyone is in agreement we are, and we’ve scored 12 goals in six games.

“So we are scoring goals and are playing better football and are keeping clean sheets. It would just be nice if it all clicked into place.”

Both Claude Gnakpa and Amari Morgan-Smith are expected to be fit after coming off with knocks in the 0-0 draw at Mansfield on Saturday, while neither Keith Keane or Dan Gleeson had any reaction to their recent injuries.

Brabin, who will be without Alex Lawless under the terms of his transfer from York, said: “The only thing people could probably tell by the tone of my voice on Saturday, I was a little bit concerned with the injury list.

“The one thing you can try and prevent to the best of your ability is injuries along the way.

“Saturday certainly was a case where I was a bit concerned, but hopefully they are all okay.

“Claude has trained. It looks like it was really bad bruising, but I think at the moment Claude is playing his best football since he’s been at the club. He’s been fantastic and I think he knows what I’m trying to do here.

“He’s got a real smile on his face and I just want to keep that and get all of the players performing to the best of their ability

“Amari has trained too. We know how enthusiastic Amari is to play and it’s important we get Amari hungry to play. He’s enjoying his football at the moment. We were concerned in the first few minutes he might have a bit of a niggle, so rather than risk it, we took him off.”

Tuesday night’s meeting will be the third time Hatters have faced York this season with the club’s having their first match at Kenilworth Road abandoned in the second half due to snow, before Town enjoyed a thumping 5-0 victory in the rematch when goalkeeper Michael Ingram was sent off after just 15 minutes.

What with York knocking Hatters out of the play-offs last season too, Brabin added: “Every game we’ve had has been a political background, with something or other to try and put us off.

“They Crawley game and the Southport game, now York, we’ve just got to focus on ourselves.

“The manager (Gary Mills) has come in and put his stamp on things. He’s changed it around a little bit but in the game at home, the goalie got sent off early, so it’s not really a true reflection.”