Shinnie: Previous form counts for nothing ahead of Preston clash

Town’s good form ahead of the season being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic will count for nothing when it restarts this weekend according to midfielder Andrew Shinnie.

It will be some three months since the Hatters players last kicked a ball in anger, as they held fellow relegation rivals Wigan Athletic to a goalless draw at the DW Stadium on March 7.

That made it 11 points from a possible 18 under previous boss Graeme Jones, with three wins, two draws and just one defeat, as they trailed fourth bottom by six points.

Luton had looked far tighter defensively in that time, keeping three clean sheets, but with Nathan Jones at the helm once more and going into Saturday’s contest with Preston, Shinnie told Talksport: “We were in quite good form when the break came, so it wasn’t a great time for that, but form goes out of the window now.

“It’s basically like the start of the season again now with the time we’ve had off.

“We’ve trained hard, everyone’s done their programmes away from the training ground and now we feel we can hit the ground running.

“We’ve got nine games left in the season to try and get as many wins as we can and try and stay in the division, so that’s our sole aim right now.”

Shinnie only featured briefly since the turn of the year, playing just one minute of league action in February.

Although like the rest of the Town players, the Scottish international was under lockdown measures for 10 weeks, he is confident the squad look in good shape ahead of the resumption.

He continued: "I feel quite fit, I’ve worked as I feel the other lads have too.

"It’s slightly different in terms of in the off season you probably relax a bit more, you’ve worked hard, you’re going into a new season and you’ve got a long pre-season.

"But I feel most players in this break haven’t had the time to rest, we’ve all had programmes, we’ve had to work very hard away from the training ground to come back fit.

"So I think everyone is fitter right now than they would be if they came back in the summer, but in terms of match fitness, that’s just something you can’t replicate in training or away from the training ground.

"You can only get that from playing games, so that’s going to be interesting when you come back, how your body feels in games."

Although some players expressed their doubts about returning to football, Shinnie himself didn't have too many concerns himself, saying: "I think it’s a very tough one, probably mentally for a lot of people.

"I saw Troy Deeney with a five month old boy who has breathing problems and for him that’s a no-brainer, a tough one for him to go back.

"For me, it wasn’t too much of a problem, I don’t have children, I don’t have problems like that, so I was happy to go back, but you never know.

"If people being that home to family members, you kind of feel it would be your responsibility that happened.

"So I can understand players not being too happy with it, but the testing and the protocols at the training ground are very safe and you don’t feel in any danger right now.

"It’s a pretty simple process, you just go out with the physio and it’s a pretty straight forward test, it takes 20 seconds and that’s you done with it.

"It’s not difficult and you get the test results back pretty quickly, so it’s an easy process."

A number of Shinnie's team-mates are going into the final nine games of the season not knowing exactly where their future will lie, out of contract in the summer.

The midfielder, who has featured 100 times for Town, scoring 10 goals, since arriving in the summer of 2017, appreciates it's a difficult situation to be facing, saying: "That’s a tough one with the out of contracts.

"It's not a nice time to be out of contract and have that hanging over your head, but I’m fortunate I’ve got another year at Luton Town.

"For the boys out of contract they’ve got to keep themselves in shape and put themselves in the window and try to play as well as they can in these games if they’re playing.

"They’ll be a lot of players out of contact, so a lot of clubs will probably be looking for players and if you’re out of contact you’ve just got to try and showcase your abilities and hope you have some good offers."

Even though Town will have to play their run-in without supporters present due to the coronavirus pandemic, Shinnie is relishing the prospect of playing once more.

He added: "The lads have seen it on the TV with the German League, they've seen clips of what it’s going to be like, so everyone’s going to be ready for it, I’m sure.

"It is an exciting time, we’ve all missed football, we want to come back as quickly as possible.

"It’s what we love to do, we’d love to have to the fans in there, they do make the game, but it's the best we can do right now, so were all looking forward to that."