Hatters warned to be ready for a ‘dangerous’ Dale

The visitors head to Kenilworth Road on the back of a thumping 5-1 defeat at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday which saw them drop deeper into the relegation mire, two points adrift of safety.

Keith Hill’s side were also beaten 4-3 at home by bottom team AFC Wimbledon recently and are on a run of eight defeats in 10 games, conceding 29 goals in that time, being thumped 5-0 by Doncaster and 4-0 at home to both Bradford City and Burton Albion.

However, although Town are involved in matters at the other end, top by five points from Barnsley with 12 games, to go, McCormack was preaching caution.

He said: “We’re playing some good football and teams that are fighting and battling down in the relegation zone or are close to it are dangerous.

“That’s when they’re at their most dangerous as no player wants to get relegated.

“When you’re fighting against it, players might be fighting for contracts, they’re a dangerous animal to come up against.

“So we’ve got to be back to our best in terms of that cutting edge in the final third and just be a little bit more offensively sound in counter attacks.”

It was a message echoed by Town manager Mick Harford who was at Dale’s recent defeat to AFC Wimbledon at Spotland.

He said: “I went up to watch them and they’ll be difficult opponents.

“They were beaten, but that will make it even harder for us, because they’ll be wounded and they’ll want to come and try and correct that.”

Meanwhile, defender Matty Pearson is hoping Luton can make it 22 league games without defeat after Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Coventry, adding: “We just need to keep the momentum going of this unbeaten run.

“We’ll all be striving for that win, we need to win and that’s what we go out to do.”