Pilkington eying another Wembley final for Town’s fans

HATTERS captain George Pilkington is desperate to give the club’s long-suffering fans another day out at Wembley in the FA Trophy this season, writes Mike Simmonds.

Town take on Mansfield in the first leg of their semi-final on Sunday, with the return leg at Kenilworth Road taking place next Saturday.

Pilkington was part of the Hatters side who won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy back in April 2009 and is now out to add another winners medal to his collection, while giving the supporters, who have seen their club drop from the Championship to non-league in recent years, something to cheer.

He said: “I’ve experienced it and you want a bit more of it. There’s never a bad time to go and play your football at Wembley, so it’s a great opportunity for the club and for the fans.

“They’ve stood by us through thick and thin, followed us all over the country to some bad places really and given us their support. It would be nice to reward them with a trip to Wembley.”

Standing in Hatters way is a Mansfield side who have struggled in the Blue Square Bet Premier this season, sitting in mid-table, but despite their poor home record, with just six wins from 15 games, Pilkignton is prepared for a tough test.

He said: “It’s an opportunity for both clubs to get to Wembley. You don’t want to give too much away over the two legs. It’s a bit how do you play the first one, but we just should do what we’ve been doing the previous weeks and try and go there and win.

“It’s going to be a bit nervy at some point in the tie and maybe it comes down to small margins at the end of the day.”

Although Hatters are away for the first leg and favourites with the bookmakers to win the tie overall, Pilkington refused to get carried away, especially after Town’s last two-legged affair.

He said: “If you look at the play-offs last year and we played York over the two games, you probably would have said that on paper they didn’t have the strongest squad in the division.

“But it doesn’t always work out that way. In cup games, the results can be surprising, so we’ve got two very tough games with what’s at stake. Mansfeld are going to be very tough opposition.

“There’s a lot of reward to be had from going to Wembley. We need to make sure we’re focused on Sunday’s game as we want to make sure we’re in a good position for the second leg.

“We don’t want to go there and make any silly mistakes and put yourself out of sight.”

Town were originally supposed to play the first leg on Saturday, but the match was moved back to Sunday on police advice.

With Luton back in action on Tuesday night with a match against Cambridge in the league, Pilkington was confident the squad was strong enough to cope with two games in three days.

He said: “It’s an extra day to recover from Tuesday’s game (with Tamworth) if you look at it that way. The lads should be fit and raring to go on Sunday and the games come round thick and fast on Tuesday.

“You never look that far ahead really. It’s very important to us and we need to take as many points as we can, but you can only take one step at a time.

“Bring on Mansfield really. It’s a tie that both teams will be looking forward too and we’ve got to go up there and get a good result.

“We’ve got a good squad. The players don’t need any extra incentive to go to Wembley and play in a cup final. So it’s a very important game. It’s not all done and dusted on Sunday, but we want to be in a strong position come Sunday afternoon.”

The winners will face either Darlington or Gateshead at Wembley, and although focusing on Mansfield first, Pilkington was wary of the threats both sides possess.

He added: “Darlington we’ve played them twice. They’re very big and physical. Gateshead are a good side, they’ve given us two good games. They went 2-0 up against us at home in 15 minutes and are a good footballing team. They beat Wrexham seven something the other week, so you can’t put things down on paper as it comes down to the games and we’ve got to make sure that we’re right.”