PREVIEW: Hull City v Luton Town

Hull's form away from home in recent weeks has been the main reason why the Tigers are looking odds-on to spend a second season at Championship level.

Following a desperately tough start to life back in the second tier after winning League One last year, a 4-1 win at Preston on the opening day was quickly wiped away by nine games without a victory, taking just three points in that time.

The Tigers eventually beat Middlesbrough in October, but that was swiftly followed by five straight defeats as it left City, then managed by Grant McCann, sitting in the relegation zone with just two wins from 16 encounters.

However, McCann began to slowly get things going, beating Barnsley 2-0 and then promptly turned the form-book on its head, winning four in a row, with two draws, making it six unbeaten to climb out of the drop zone.

Although that led to five winless matches, a superb January saw Hull beat Blackburn and win 1-0 at Bournemouth, but by that time, the club had been sold by the Allam family to Turkish businessman Acun Ilicali.

The new owners clearly wanted to take the club in a different direction, as despite the victory at the Cherries, McCann was dismissed, with Shota Arveladze taking over as head coach a few days later.

The former Rangers striker got off to a winning start, beating Swansea 2-0 on home soil in his first match, but since then, the Tigers have lost four in a row in front of their own fans, not scoring in any of those matches either.

The fact they haven't been sucked into a relegation battle with the likes of Barnsley and Derby both putting up a terrific fight to get out of the bottom three is due to the form on their travels.

Draws at Sheffield United, QPR and Birmingham, backed up by victories at Peterborough and Coventry, has seen Hull go five unbeaten on their travels.

It means that with nine games to go, City are sitting 19th in the table, 13 points away from third bottom, although Arveladze knows at home something has to change, telling Hull Live: “We know we owe our supporters a good game at home and this performance will give a good message to them to come back and be around us.

“Our home performances are not as good as our away performances but I don’t think it is about the character of the team.

"Probably we have a little bit more pressure at home to dominate more and we need time for that.

“Thirteen points clear of bottom three – when you win, it is easy to not look down and not ask what others have done.”

Off the field, the club's young talent are getting recognised too, with forward Keane Lewis-Potter called up to the England U21 squad for the first time, with goalkeeper Harvey Cartwright in the England U20 squad too.

Team news: Luton have major defensive injury concerns this weekend with Sonny Bradley and Gabe Osho still out, while there are doubts over Kal Naismith and Tom Lockyer too.

Reece Burke is unlikely to play after appearing to pull his hamstring on Wednesday night, while Glen Rea requires surgery on a serious knee injury picked up during his loan spell at Wigan Athletic.

There are also doubts over midfield duo Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu and Robert Snodgrass too.

Hull are hopeful that on-loan Chelsea goalkeeper Nathan Baxter will be available having not featured since the end of January, but Andy Cannon and Tyler Smith are both out, although Mallik Wilks could be recalled.

Top scorers - Hatters: Elijah Adebayo (13). Tigers: Keane Lewis-Potter (9).

Milestones: Town keeper James Shea made it to 100 appearances for the Hatters on Wednesday night, keeping his 40th clean sheet in the process as Preston were beaten 4-0.

The former Arsenal stopper signed for Luton from AFC Wimbledon back in July 2017.

Man in the middle: Tony Harrington - taken 18 games so far this season, showing 59 yellows and one red, with one Luton match, the 3-3 draw against Swansea back in September.

Officiated the Hatters twice last term, defeats at Millwall and QPR and had Luton three times the campaign before, the 3-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest and 7-0 reverse at Brentford, although did have the 3-0 Carabao Cup win at Cardiff.

Prior to that, refereed Luton a further seven times, with Town winning twice, drawing twice and losing three, sending John-Paul Kissock off against Wrexham in March 2012.

The referees assistants are Marc Perry and Nick Hopton, with fourth official Jeremy Simpson.

In charge: Shota Arveladze – 49-year-old former Georgian international who started at Tbilisi and Trabzonspor in 1993, moving to Ajax in 1997 and then snapped up by Rangers for £3m.

Won the Scottish Premier League twice, Scottish Cup twice and League Cup once, leaving for Holland in 2005, joining AZ on a free transfer, heading to Levante two years later before retiring in 2008.

Also scored 26 goals in 61 games for his country, as he remains Georgia's leading scorer.

Was appointed as assistant manager of AZ under head coach Louis van Gaal in July 2008, going to Turkey to manage Kayserispor in 2010, joining Trabzonspor in July 2015, but left a few months later.

Announced as head coach of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv in June 2016, sacked midway through the season, going to Uzbekistan side Pakhtakor Tashkent in 2017, leading them to Super League and Cup in 2019 and 2020.

Left in December 2020 and was announced as the new head coach of Hull City in January of this year.

View from the opposition: Shota Arveladze talking to the club website - “They (Luton Town) are a very organised, physical team.

"They're on a good run so it's a very tough game. They're going to be a very tough opponent.

“We'll go into the next game and will do our best to show our best performance to win the game.

"We owe them (the supporters). We want to show them the performances which we've produced away."

Managerial record: Town chief Nathan Jones has taken on Hull three times in his career, beaten 2-0 when in charge of Stoke City in February 2019.

The next two have seen Luton triumph though, winning both matches 1-0.

One to watch: Keane Lewis-Potter, 21-year-old forward has been an ever-present for the Tigers this term.

Came through the ranks with the club, making his debut back in 2019, scoring twice in 22 the following season.

Made his name in League One last term, scoring 15 goals in 51 appearances, as the Tigers got back into the second tier by winning the title.

Has proved he can cope in the Championship too, with eight league goals so far this season, including a double in the recent 3-0 win at Peterborough, although only two have come at home.

Called up to the England U21 squad this week as well.

Friendly faces: Defender Reece Burke joined Hull for £1.5m from West Ham in July 2018, spending three years at the Tigers, playing 110 games and scoring five goals.

Helped the club back into the Championship, but left in the summer to head to Kenilworth Road and has now played 26 times for Luton, scoring twice.

Midfielder Robert Snodgrass was signed by Hull for £6m from Norwich in June 2014.

Spent three years with the Tigers, playing 57 times and scoring 13 goals, helping City to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs in 2016.

Went to West Ham for £7m in January 2017, as he arrived at Luton last month, and has made two appearances for the club off the bench so far.

Town skipper Sonny Bradley came through the ranks at Hull, playing twice for the Tigers at the end of the 2011-12 season.

Joined Portsmouth on a free in May 2013 as he made his way to Luton in June 2018 via stints at Crawley and Plymouth.

Hatters goalkeeper coach Kevin Dearden also had a brief stint at Hull, joining on loan from Spurs in January 1991, playing three times.

For Hull, midfielder George Moncur joined Luton from Barnsley in January 2019, making 59 appearances, scoring 11 times, including memorable efforts against Portsmouth, Fleetwood and Wigan Athletic.

Wasn't offered a new contract in the summer and joined the Tigers, with 16 outings and one goal, but only seven starts in the league.

Played for both: Left-sided player Ray Daniel began his career with the Hatters in 1982 when the club were in the top flight, playing 30 times in total, scoring four goals.

Had a loan at Gillingham, moving away in 1986 and going to Hull City, where he played over 50 games for the club.

Went to Cardiff City and then Portsmouth for five years, racking up over a century of appearances for Pompey, eventually finishing his career at Walsall,

We've got form: Luton have enjoyed plenty of their trips to Hull over the years, beginning with a 1-1 Division Two draw in April 1950.

They lost 5-3 in their second visit, before starting a four game winning run in September 1951, including a 4-0 triumph thanks to Bob Morton's double in December 1954.

Victories have been shared since then, as in total, Luton have played 20 games, with 10 wins, four draws and six defeats, scoring 30 and conceding 26.

Town are unbeaten in their last three visits though, with three clean sheets.

Last time out: Luton picked up a memorable and absolutely vital 1-0 victory at the MKM Stadium on their last visit.

Needing to win to give themselves any hopes of staying up against their then relegation rivals, the scores were goalless with five minutes to go.

Then, sub Kazenga LuaLua, only on for 14 minutes himself, advanced and let fly from 25 yards, his shot beating Matt Ingram and going into the net as Town put Championship safety in their own hands, which they managed the following game by beating Blackburn.

Hatters: Simon Sluga, Martin Cranie (Peter Kioso 89), Sonny Bradley, Glen Rea, Cameron Carter-Vickers, James Bree, Luke Berry, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Elliot Lee (George Moncur 79), Harry Cornick (Danny Hylton 70), James Collins (Kazenga LuaLua 70).

Subs not used: James Shea, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Callum McManaman, Andrew Shinnie, Jacob Butterfield

Referee: Robert Jones.

Attendance: None.