Osho urges Luton to take their Watford display into Millwall clash

Luton defender Gabe Osho is hopeful that Town can take their performance from Saturday’s 2-0 victory over rivals Watford into this afternoon’s promotion clash against fellow promotion chasers Millwall.

Town produced a terrific display to beat their fiercest rivals in front of a fervent Kenilworth Road crowd to stretch their unbeaten run to seven games, and maintain their hopes of catching second placed Sheffield United.

The challenge is to now replicate that kind of 90 minutes against the Lions, who themselves are right in the mix for a play-off place this term, and drew 2-2 in Bedfordshire just over a month ago.

That night, the Lions benefited from an Ethan Horvath goalkeeping error, plus Tom Bradshaw’s clearly offside goal, before Elijah Adebayo volleyed home and Luke Berry rescued a late point.

Osho said: “It’s important to try to move on to Millwall as I think we can really do something special as a team.

“Their two goals weren’t the best, but I think we scored two pretty good goals and we dug in and got back against a team that don’t normally tend to give up many goals, or many chances.

"So hopefully we can just start where we left off in that game.

"It was only recent as well, so just start where we left off and try to win the game as early as possible.

“Normally they tend to physically dominate teams, but I feel like we physically dominate teams and now we’ve added that little bit extra to our game, that little bit more football.

"Hopefully if we can just match them up physically, what we work on technically and our patterns of play will start to shine through and we can hopefully win the game.”

Osho had been on target himself last weekend, putting the hosts in front with a close range finish from Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s cross, before celebrating in front of the travelling Hornets fans, having been sent off in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.

The centre half was part of another terrific defensive display, as boss Rob Edwards said: “The whole team has performed really well and Gabe’s one of those.

"The position really suited him, he’s able to give us good control with the ball, but his defensive stuff has been excellent.

"It’s nice for him to get the goal because of what happened in the previous game against Watford as well, so I understand the story.

"He’s a great kid, he works really, really hard every day, he’s got a brilliant attitude and we’ve got real competition in that area of the pitch, so it’s good.”

A win for the Hatters this afternoon would take them above Middlesbrough into third and just three points behind second placed Sheffield United once more, the Blades not in action until hosting Wigan Athletic at 3pm, while Boro host leaders Burnley in the evening kick-off.

With seven games to go, Osho insists the players still haven’t given up on pipping their rivals to the automatic promotion spot, saying: “The three points (against Watford) is the really important thing, especially after the international break which can kind of take away momentum sometimes.

"To start the last run of games with a win is really important.

“Yes, I think so (Town catching second), right now we feel like we can win every game, so we’re only going to look up instead of looking behind us.

"We go into every game positive, believing we can win and with that kind of mentality.

"It’s only upwards, so we’ll take each game as it comes.

"We’re not looking too far ahead, but we’re positive towards every single game.”

Should Luton maintain their superb form at the back then they have every chance against the Lions today, as keeper Ethan Horvath is now joint top for clean sheets in the Championship with 17 to his name.

Osho, who has played his role in Town’s miserliness during recent weeks, especially at the weekend when the Hornets had just the one shot on target, adding: “That just shows how hard we’re working from up the pitch as if they keep getting the ball and the attacking players keep having chances and chances to attack, because of the quality they have, something normally would happen.

"But because we stopped that supply, always pressing them, we kept up the pitch quite well, that’s why we were able to limit their shots on goal and keep them away from our goal.

“As a defensive unit, but starting from the front, it's been really, really good recently.

"We seem really solid, Eth doesn’t have too much to do in games.

"It’s just testament to the way we’ve been training, the way we’ve been working hard, so a really good feeling.”