Work ethic vital to Town's success says boss
Off the mark and back to winning ways with a victory on Tuesday, John Still believes nothing but hard work will get the Town where they want to be this season.
The boss admitted at his Thursday press conference that the Hatters did not work hard enough against Southport and they were punished by a defeat – but worked harder against Salisbury and reaped the rewards.
The trick is to now keeping working hard in order to achieve success.
“We were efficient against Salisbury,” the manager said. “We knew that we were coming up against a team that would make it hard for us.
“It was efficient but it wasn’t great. We need efficiency and the same level of work-rate every week.
“If we’re able to keep it solid we’ve got the players with quality that can make a difference. In the Community Shield Wigan had slightly more of the play but Robin van Persie lit the blue touch paper for Manchester United and they won the game. You need to be organised and disciplined enough so your attacking players can come up with something – and that’s how I look at it.
“We will come up against a lot teams who we will need to break down. On Tuesday I never thought we looked in any danger of losing the game, but it was just whether or not we had little bit extra that could get us the win, and in the end we did.”
Macclesfield arrive at Kenilworth Road on Saturday without a point on the board from their opening two matches in the Skrill Premier.
And while Still recognises the threat John Askey’s side will pose, he hopes more hard work from the Town will be enough to win three more points.
“It might be tougher Saturday because Macclesfield haven’t got any points yet and we’re going to have to work our socks off again,” said the boss.
“But it’s going to take about eight games to see where you really are. You might want to change or try one or two things but it’s not until after games you learn about them. They’re all tough games before they start.
“If the players work hard and are able to create an atmosphere in the ground that they’re happy to play in then the result will come.
“It’s all about hard work. The first thing we had to do on Tuesday was work hard. It gave us a platform to display our skills. They need to work as hard as they can.
“We didn’t work as hard as we should have against Southport but we did on Tuesday and got the result. If we work as hard as we did against Salisbury hopefully our performance will be better.”
Still confirmed that Anthony Charles will be out for up to six weeks after injuring his shoulder in Tuesday’s win.
“The best we can hope for is four weeks, the worst case, six weeks. It’s disappointing for him but it’ll give Alex Lacey an extended chance in the team,” said the manager.
Striker Jon Shaw meanwhile looks set to continue to play on with a hernia. “It does need to be looked at,” said Still. “We’re going to pick our time to do it, we won’t rush it and he can play.”
Ronnie Henry is rated 50:50 by the boss for inclusion in Saturday’s game as the captain continues to recover from a back problem, whilst Alex Lawless – fresh from two goals for the development squad on Tuesday – could be set for a return to first team action. “Alex did well and he’s a fit lad but I think there might be one more game for him before he’s where we want him to be. But we’ll see, he was ok in training today [Thursday] and we’ll see how he is on Friday.”