Town skipper demands a single-minded approach

Luton have seen their own challenge stunted by a run of inconsistent form lately, with just one win in seven, as they have lost top spot to in-form Accrington Stanley.

However, with others struggling to pick up results as well, it means that Luton still have a seven point gap to fourth place, with six games to go.

The fact it could have been even more though with Notts County drawing and Exeter losing on Good Friday was a sore point for Cuthbert, but he wants all the focus on Town now, saying: “That’s the frustrating thing, how many times has that happened?

“We’ve come in and all the results have went our way, I think we’re still seven points clear of fourth which is good, but it could have been 10, we could have almost been promoted, so that’s the disappointing thing about it.

“I think we just need to focus on getting our results. Everyone’s talking about if Accrington win this, if they lose this, if Exeter win, if they lose, we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves.

“Lets get as many wins as we can, we’ve got six games to go, lets go out to win them all and finish as high up the league and get as many points as we can.”

Town were hit by another stumbling block on Friday as they lost 2-1 at Colchester, although there were mitigating circumstances, when they lost Luke Berry to a horrific ankle injury after just two minutes.

They fought back to trail 2-1 in the closing stages thanks to a late Danny Hylton penalty, while with Cuthbert thrown upfront, he almost levelled, slicing off target.

The defender continued: “I should have scored, it’s died in the mud, I’m expecting it to bounce a bit higher and the mud has just killed it, but we’ve had a few chances like that.

“The best teams do that, the best teams win games and then follow that up with rolling their sleeves up and grinding out another result, whether it be a win or a draw.

"We’re disappointed we’ve not done that.

“I think the last five, 10 minutes of the first half we did start getting on top. We had a couple of half chances here and there, but we knew the script, we’ve been here before, we’ve experienced it at home every week.

"Teams do sit back on us, especially when they’ve got that lead, they do sit back, they do invite pressure. We did have chances, but unfortunately it took a penalty and was quite similar to last year, I think we got beat 2-1 here last year, so it was very, very similar.”

Now up against a Stags side who themselves are in poor run of form at just the wrong time, dropping out of the play-offs with no win in six and new manager David Flitcroft, who took over in March once Steve Evans left for Peterborough, yet to taste victory.

Cuthbert added: “We’re strong at home, we fancy ourselves against anyone at home.

"Mansfield have obviously had a change of manager, a new style has been brought in, it’s going to be a tough game.

"They’ll probably see it as their last chance to sneak into the automatic spots, as I think they’re round about the last play-off place, so it will be a tough game.

“We know all about their strengths, we’ll go over the video in the next couple of days, we’ll cool down right and prepare right for Mansfield and look to get a positive result.”