Still feels Town showed a ‘glimmer’ of their potential against Grimsby

Town boss John StillTown boss John Still
Town boss John Still
Town boss John Still thought his side gave a glimmer of the future during the 1-1 draw against Grimsby Town last night, writes Mike Simmonds.

With the Premier Sports TV cameras in attendance, Hatters produced easily their best performance in recent weeks, giving supporters a real filip ahead of next season as they could and probably should have taken all three points.

An impressed Still said: “I was pleased with the performance, I think it’s a glimmer of what we can achieve, but that’s still a way to come.

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“We were really, really poor at Gateshead, but it’s not losing as we all lose, it’s responding to that.

“I think that gradually, gradually, gradually, people are understanding what we require. I thought we played some great football at a great tempo, showed a glimpse of what I think is happening.”

Towns fans were left purring with some of the football on display as Luton looked slick going forward, especially in the first half with Dave Martin once again a standout performer.

Still continued: “I have a way of playing, the team will have a way of playing and I think it will be great to watch as we want to cross the ball, we want to move the ball quickly.

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“Once we can get the right level of fitness I think gradually you can wear teams down and I think we did that.

“We went a goal behind which was disappointing, but we didn’t take a foot back, we took a foot forward and gradually ground them down and got the goal.

“With a little bit of luck we might have got another one.”

There is still plenty to work on though as Hatters forced 17 corners but failed to seriously test McKeown from the set-pieces, while Still also felt his side should have made more of their chances in front of goal.

He said: “We had opportunities to score and sometimes you can say we didn’t score because we were a bit unlucky, or they defended very well, but you have to maximise opportunities. It’s an area we’ve got to improve on, there’s no doubt about that,

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We need to convert and get efforts on goals from corners, but we’ve had so little time to work on break down areas, corners for and corners against since I’ve been here.

“When then new season comes we’ll have a lot more time to work on that.”

Still sprung a surprise in his team selection, with Jonathan Smith moving to the unfamiliar role of right back due to Ronnie Henry’s hernia operation, rather than the boss asking Simon Ainge to continue in the position.

He said: “I had this thing in my head that he could play right back, I saw him in training and he could.

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“It’s about trying to find out what everybody can do. Sometimes, you do something and it looks shocking and doesn’t work, but sometimes that’s as important as finding out what’s good.

“If next season something happens and we need someone to play right back, who’s going to play right back? Well, Smudge can play right back, Simon Ainge can play right back.

“You find out a lot about players, how they look at it themselves. Do they sulk about not playing in their best position, or do they say, I’ll go and do it?

“That’s what he did and what Simon did. That’s fantastic as it tells me they’re team players and I thought Smudge was good, very good.”

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Meanwhile, Grimsby joint boss Paul Hurst added: “I was more interested in the performance rathher than the actual result as we’re looking at players, and places up for grabs for the play-offs.

“Walking up here, apparently it’s by far and away Luton’s best performance of the season. Well if that is and they can’t beat us and we’ve made changes, that says something.”

For all the latest Luton Town FC news, reports, stats, player profiles, live match updates, MOM poll, prediction table and a complete fixture list, visit our Hatters Microsite.

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