Still praises his ‘resilient’ Hatters

Despite suffering badly with injuries, plus a sickness bug that swept through Kenilworth Road recently, Hatters have won three of their last four matches, without conceding a goal either.

Still said: “I am pleased that we’ve had to push people to play, sometimes out of position and they’ve just gone in and done a job for the team.

“The one thing that we’ve been and the one thing you need to win anything, you need to have resilience and we have had resilience by the bagful, we really have.”

Two of the main players the manager picked out for particular credit were Alex Lacey, who has been forced to play right back recently, and Shaun Whalley, as he made his first start of the season against Oxford on Saturday.

Still continued: “Lacey’s come in and played right back, he’s not a right back, he’s a centre half. He’s just stuck to it and done an efficient job.

“Has he been brilliant? Of course he hasn’t, he’s a centre half playing right back.

“But has he played with a big heart? Has he played with a great attitude, this is not my position but I’ve got to do my job for the team? Yes.

“We tried to be as positive as we could, we’ve got hardly any wide people, particularly right hand side.

“We brought Shaun in Saturday who hasn’t done anything since pre-season to try and give us an hour, just to occupy the full back and to make it not easy for him.

“I thought he was absolutely terrific. People might look at it and go he didn’t play great, but if you think he’s going to come in and do great after doing nothing but one reserve game at Portsmouth.

“He came in and did a great job for us and all those people that have to do a job for the club, their contribution must never be overlooked.”

Hatters’ run has seen them climb to 10th in the table, as they are now level on points with Shrewsbury, who occupy the final play-off place.

Still wasn’t paying particular attention to the standings just yet though as he added: “If I look back on 10 games, I don’t exactly know where we are in the league, I don’t.

“I have people tell me where we are, but we’re close enough to the top group having come through a really, really difficult time and I think we’re getting better, we’ve done all right.

“I’ve been really pleased defensively and in the last few games we’ve been making openings. We haven’t been taking as many of the opportunities that we’d like to, but we’re in that sort of vein.

“We’ve looked like we’re on the right road, although I’m sure there will be more ups and downs on it.”