Losing players to international duty is not ideal before a match says Buckle

Andre Gray, Greg Taylor and Adam Watkins all missed out on training ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Wrexham after travelling to Belgium with the England C side this week.

Striker Gray popped up with 14 minutes left to snatch a 2-1 win for the Three Lions, who needed victory to keep alives any hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the International Challenge Trophy.

He and his Hatters team mates all started on the bench for manager Paul Fairclough’s side.

Hatters boss Paul Buckle told the Luton News yesterday: “It’s not ideal. I’m all for the lads being picked, I said that when their names came out but to lose them Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that’s tough on me and the team, but that’s life.

“There’s three of them, so nearly a third of the team have gone, hopefully sooner or later we can settle down and all train week to week and get a settled team.

“I’m not sure there’d be any manager that would be too pleased with losing three of the team that started the week before but the boys will be back tomorrow (Friday) and then I’ll make my mind up about the team after training.

But Buckle was delighted that Gray scored for his country and believes that the goal will do his confidence the power of good.

He said: “It doesn’t surprise me with Andre, his work ethic is unbelievable he’s always out doing extra and he’s getting his rewards now. To score for his country at C level is a fantastic achievement and it makes it worthwhile him going.

“He’s still developing his game, we’ve got a lot of good young players that are still progressing. We would dearly liked to have had him this week what with working on stuff in training obviously as you do before a game, but centre forwards get confidence from scoring goals and I’m sure he’s going to be coming back in flying so we’re looking forward to having him back.”