UPDATED: Hatters kids must be ready to be involved in Town’s FA Cup tie at Cambridge

With Luton’s loan men unavailable to play in Saturday’s 1pm kick-off the Town chief revealed that a number of the club’s burgeoning youngsters could form part of the squad at the weekend following Wednesday night’s 3-1 FA Youth Cup fourth round qualifying victory over near-neighbours Barton Rovers at Kenilworth Road.

On whether any of them might feature, Buckle, speaking at today’s press conference, said: “Yeah maybe. The youth have always got to be ready. Quite often I will walk across and talk with the young lads and tell them, make sure you’re ready.

“You never know when the opportunity is going to come. If it happens it won’t be the first time a youngster’s got on in an FA Cup game.

“So who knows. I won’t give my hand away, of course I can’t do that. But the youth team do need to be ready.”

On-loan Guiseley defender Simon Ainge is unable to play having played in a previous round, while Connor Essam and Yaser Kasim are not being allowed to play by their parent clubs.

The centre of defence will therefore see the most change and the competition is on to see who will partner the returning Janos Koavs there.

Buckle urged him to take his chance, saying: “It is quite a shake-up, but then Jan’s had a good rest now. He’s looked bright, he’s had his rest and it’s down to him to come and take his opportunity now.

“When a door closes for one or two then it opens for others and I know as a former player you’ve got to take your opportunity when you get it.

“We can’t afford to rest anyone really, as rule I’m not really a lover of that to be honest, I don’t think that works in my opinion.

“We want to keep up the momentum, we want to keep the players in a good place, so I don’t subscribe to that and even if I wanted to we are quite low on numbers and because of the players who are not able to play because of being on loan the team will have to change.

“So it’s enforced but everyone’s ready. We’ve had a development game this week. Everybody’s up and at it again in training today which is excellent.”

Both Alex Lacey and Dean Beckwith were forced off in Tuesday’s development game at Charlton.

On whether either of them may partner the popular Hungarian, the Luton chief said: “Possibly but then both have struggled a little bit. Dean came off in the development game, he’s still feeling his groin.

“Although he trained today I’ve got to be careful of that. The type of person Dean Beckwith is he’s desperate to play.

“But it’s a slight worry he came off feeling the groin so I’ve got to look at that tomorrow.

“Lacey’s been ill as well, he’s been really poorly, so he’s not had hardly any football of late so we are pushed where that’s concerned.

“Others have had to slot in before and that’s the name of the game.”

Top scorer Stuart Fleetwood is available once again though after serving his one-match ban for his sending off against Brtaintree and Buckle was glad to welcome him back into the fold.

“It suits us in many ways because the best form of defence for me is attack anyway,” said Buckle.

“There’s one thing you can’t accuse us of this season and that’s not going for it.

“We’ve gone for it in every game. We’ve taken centre-halves off, got in the lead and then bringing them back on again because we try and win every game and it will be no different Saturday.

“We will go there and we will take a good following.

“We want to impress the fans, we want to be value for money and I think the boys have done terrifically well this season.”

Andre Gray is also champing at the bit to be involved after England C’s game in Albania on Tuesday night was cancelled because of a deluge.

He was one of four Town men due to be involved, but is the only one who can play at the weekend.

Buckle said: “They got a little of our weather didn’t they!

“They’ll be OK. Andre’s come back OK. Obviously we’ve got Adam (Watkins) out on loan.

“(Greg) Taylor’s got a slight knock and Aingey can’t play anyway, so it’s only really Andre that’s effected by the travel.

“But he’s a young lad and if you’d seen him train this morning - Andre is someone things like that don’t really effect him.

“He’s up and at it as a young footballer and he’s been doing extra today actually, so it hasn’t effected him at all.”

The game though has come too early for long-term injury concern Danny Spiller who finally pulled on a Luton shirt in the 4-0 defeat at Charlton.

“Danny Spiller came through the development game. He got 25 minutes which I was thrilled about actually,” said Buckle.

“He got some very good touches, but no, it will be too soon for him at the moment.

“Every training session and every ball he kicks and every minute or hour he gets through is a bonus for us.

“Because when he has been plagued like he has this season you worry he’s going to breakdown.

“But he’s looking really OK and I’m hopeful now as I’m sure he is that he’s getting stronger and stronger with every training session and putting the minutes on the board, whether it’s in a practice match or development game and edging towards being on the bench in the first team and then starting.

“That’s the journey now for him and hopefully he’s over the worst of the injury.

“Simon’s (Parsell the physio) worked tirelessly with him and it’s funny how quickly time goes really.

“It probably hasn’t gone quickly for him, but to have him back now in and around it is a big plus for us.

“Everybody else is all right. Everybody else is OK, just Beckwith is a slight worry and as we spoke about Lacey.”

The game has been moved forward to a 1pm kick-off on police advice, but it’s of no concern to Buckle.

He said: “You wake up on a Saturday morning and you want to go in and get into the club early and I’m sure the players feel the same, they don’t like waiting.

“It will be nice. It will be nearer to our training times as well. I’m sure that won’t effect either side.

“Hopefully it will be a really good crowd and atmosphere and the FA Cup is a special cup and hopefully we get a special game.”

A draw would likely result in a replay of Tuesday night and the Luton boss is keen to avoid that eventuality.

He added: “I’m told it’s Tuesday. So I think both clubs would probably want to try and avoid that if they could.

“We certainly go into it to win the game so if it turns out to be a draw we deal with it, but we want to win the game.”