Gaffer gets set for visit of former club Yeovil
Hatters boss Nathan Jones has promised to field a strong team tonight when the Town are due to host his old club Yeovil in the Checkatrade Trophy quarter-final.
The game is subject to a midday pitch inspection with sub-zero temperatures over recent nights leaving the Kenilworth Road playing surface frozen in parts.
But if the last eight tie does go ahead, Jones told the local media at his Ely Way Press conference yesterday that he will put out a side capable of getting a result against the first fellow Sky Bet League Two team the Town have faced in the competition.
“We’ll play a strong side, it’s a big game – a quarter-final – but we’ll approach it in exactly the same way as we’ve approached every other game,” said Jones. “The squad we have available and the players we have available will see that we put out a strong side.”
From selecting extremely young teams in the group stages against Gillingham, West Brom and Millwall that saw the club fined £15,000 by the EFL, Jones’ selections have featured more and more experience as the knockout wins over Swindon and Chesterfield have come along.
“It’s not so much we’ve planned it,” Jones replied when asked if was a deliberate progression in terms of strength of line-up. “At the time, games were coming thick and fast so we made sure that we utilised all the squad.
“We’ve got a fit, strong squad now and we’ll make sure we’ll use that. There’s a couple who’ll be suspended for the weekend that come into contention, so that may add a bit of experience to the side.”
Top scorer Danny Hylton – who has yet to feature in the competition, but is available for selection ahead of his two-game league suspension for amassing ten yellow cards – comes into that bracket.
“Of course, he’s part and parcel of it,” said Jones. “The reason we haven’t used him in this competition before is that he’s been our main striker and he’s been putting in massive shifts on a Saturday which, with the other players we have, have enabled us to rest him in midweek and not have to use him. That’s slightly different now because he has a week’s grace in terms of his playing time, so we might use him.”
Tonight’s game kicks off at 7.45pm and admission is £5 for adults and free for Under-16s, although those junior tickets must be obtained from the ticket office in advance of kick-off.
The Main Stand and David Preece Stand will be open for home fans, and anyone not attending the game can follow live updates on the Wall on the LTFC website, or if you’re a Hatters Player subscriber, listen in for Simon Pitts’ full match commentary from just before kick-off.
Referee will be Ben Toner, who last took charge of the Hatters in the 2-0 win at Morecambe in November.
*Nathan Jones' full Press conference from yesterday can be seen on Hatters Player freeview by clicking here