Boss says Hatters resolve will be tested on Tuesday
Manager John Still believes the Town need to be “doubly up” for Tuesday’s night’s trip to Morecambe as his side aim to make it three wins on the spin in League 2.
Last season the Hatters were beaten twice by Jim Bentley’s Shrimps, including a 3-0 defeat at the Globe Arena in which skipper Stephen McNulty was sent-off in the first half.
Morecambe have begun the season well and lie in seventh place in the table and Still is hoping that the Town can continue their improvement in the north west after winning their last two matches.
“When you play Morecambe you always know you’re going to get a competitive, hard-working and everyone-doing-their-bit game against you,” the manager said at his Monday press conference.
“You always know you’re going to get that, so for us to win on Tuesday we’re going to have to be doubly up for it. Otherwise, if we’re not, we’re not going to get much.
“I wouldn’t have thought you could say we’ve learned from last year – if the players don’t know that they’ve got to be on their mettle from the first minute then we’re wasting our time.
“The players aren’t stupid: they know away from home we can’t go a goal down early on.”
The Town found themselves 2-0 down and a man down inside the opening 45 minutes on their previous visit to Morecambe, but Still believes his side can take heart from their recent matches on the road when they take on the Shrimps on Tuesday.
“Away from home we’ve put in some reasonable performances,” said Still. “If I look at the away form, other than Yeovil, I think we’ve gone away and done okay.
“We were 2-0 up Yeovil but I onlt thought we were all right, we weren’t great.
“In all the away games we’ve played I think we’ve been as positive as we can positively be.
“The away last game [the 3-2 defeat at Notts County] was hard to take because we felt it wasn’t a foul or a sending off, but I thought we showed lots of character and lots quality. I wasn’t pleased with the result but I was quite pleased with the performance.
“Now we have to put that type of performance in again. We don’t want to concede goals, but that’s the kind of performance we need on Tuesday, with quality and character.”
Watch John Still's press conference on Player here.