Hatters hoping to deliver against top-of-the-table Harriers

Luton have failed to deliver against many of the top sides this season and Shaw is hoping to put that right against the title-hopefuls.

He said: “You come up against the top sides you always want to give a good account of yourselves. And I think this season we’ve lacked that a little bit where we’ve come up against Newport and we’ve got beat heavily at their place and Grimsby in the cup and things like that.

“Between now and the end of the season we’ve just got to start learning and getting used to the way the gaffer wants us to play, regardless of results.

“Yes you want to go and beat the top sides and put a marker down and disrupt what’s going off up there. But at the same time if we go into the game and do everything right, we might still get beat. We might go into the game and do everything wrong and come out with a win.

“So let’s just get to Monday, our pitch is going to be in a bit of a state after what we played on last week. That’s going to be interesting, but stick to your jobs and let’s see where we are.”

The Kenilworth Road playing surface cut up badly during last week’s goalless home draw against Tamworth in the snow and is sure to provide a real challenge for both sides on the day.

And Shaw admitted Town will have to be sound defensively if they are to put a dent in Harriers’ charge, having won 2-0 against out-of-sorts Kidderminster at the start of the season.

Shaw said: “They’re doing really well after a shaky start. I suppose if they’d started well they’d be running away with it. So they’re a good side, but we’re looking very solid at the minute regardless of conceding a couple today.

“We’ve been solid and that’s what we’re going to need to be against them, they’re renowned for being a good footballing side, but depending on the state of our pitch after the last game we’ll see how they deal with that!”

And he refused to write off the possibility of Luton reaching the play-offs if they could discover some late consistency, despite them sitting 10 points behind Grimsby with seven game to go.

“I’ve seen it done before, I don’t see why not,” Shaw added. “All it takes is for us to win six or seven, two or three from the teams above and draws and there’s a lot of teams with three or four games a week now so they’re going to be tired and we’ve got a good squad to rotate.

“Until you’re mathematically out of it you’ve got to keep going for it. All we can do is go into the next game confident, work hard and hopefully come out with a result that will keep us in touch.”