Luton look to repay travelling army of supporters

Town’s stars are looking to repay Luton’s travelling army of 4,000 supporters by shocking Premier League Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday, writes Mark Wood.

The Hatters sold out their allocation for the fourth round tie before the tickets even went on general sale. Boss Paul Buckle was thrilled with the atmosphere at Kenilworth Road as Luton beat Championship Wolves 1-0 in the previous round, and he’s looking for more of the same at Carrow Road.

He said: “It will be different away from home, but at the same time we are taking 4,000-plus away fans, that will be fantastic to see for our players and that will help us as well on the day.

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“I’m not sure this season what the away team has taken in numbers in parallel, but certainly it will make for a fantastic atmosphere, full house and our fans will definitely play their part.

“We’ve spoken about the history of the club and the heritage and this is a great day for our fans and hopefully we can put on a really good performance.”

Skipper Ronnie Henry can’t wait to hear the noise coming from the away end, as he said: “It’s sold out, there’s 4,000 Luton fans going there. They’re noisy at home as it is, so I can only imagine what they’re going to be like Saturday.

“Being sold out, that’s what you want to play in front of, there’s no point going there and there being many, many seats left.

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“Everyone’s bought the tickets and they’re looking forward to the game and so are we.”

Town’s supporters have certainly suffered their fair share of disappointment in recent seasons, having lost successive play-off finals and gone out in the semis the year before.

And keeper Mark Tyler is hoping that the Hatters can reward them for their loyalty.

He said: “It’s a reward for them as well. We’ve had four years of trying to get out of this league and we’ve always failed at the last hurdle.

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“So it’s nice to have a little cup run and obviously when we played Wolves here the atmosphere was unbelievable.

“I mean it’s the best atmosphere since I’ve been at the club. They’ll be as loud as anything Saturday and it’s a nice little reward for them.

“And hopefully we can put in a performance for them.”

Ticket prices had caused some controversy in the build-up to the match and striker Jon Shaw believes Town could have taken many more supporters if they’d been allowed.

“There’s obviously none in our league that get what we get at home in a league game,” he said.

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“There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to sell out. I think it was a shame they dropped the prices, I think for both teams.

“If they’d given us an allocation of all three sides and the home team one side, I’m sure we would have sold all three out, because those are the kind of fans we’ve got.

“And the occasion would have brought out even more fans I’m sure. It’s going to be fantastic, I’m sure they’ll love it and enjoy it and hopefully it’s going to be a great day.

Meanwhile, there will be 500 supporters cheering the Town on at Kenilworth Road after Conference sponsors Blue Square Bet paid for a live feed of the game to be screened on televisions at bars inside the stadium after reaching an agreement with the FA, ITV and the Canaries.

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Free tickets were made available on Wednesday and were all gone in less that 24 hours.

Buckle added: “It’s a fantastic offer from Blue Square Bet and one which is going to be really appreciated by those supporters who cannot get to Carrow Road.

“We could have sold thousands of more tickets for the tie, but Blue Square’s generosity means that many of those fans who missed out on tickets will have the opportunity to watch the game live.”