After suffering a 3-1 away loss to Nottingham Forest in their last match, Town will be hoping to build on a positive first half performance at the City Ground, having taken the lead on the day through Harry Cornick.
Opponents Derby are unbeaten in five league matches coming into the fixture, but the Hatters know they could climb to within five points of safety with victory.
Graeme Jones said:
On the importance of picking up results: "My next port of call is to get a positive result. When we get a positive result and we get everybody fit, everybody on that pitch, momentum can take you anywhere. I am sorry for being a bit boring, but I have to look at the next fixture and I have to try and get a positive result first.
“I think we got a positive performance against Forest, certainly for the first half. Harry Cornick going off hurt us a little bit and that’s no disrespect to anyone who came on the pitch that day, I just think Harry is unique in how he plays.
"So the performance was there - we need to continue that level of performance, we need to get a positive result, we need everybody tonight. It’s a big night, we need to take something from the game, a positive result and then we’ll see where that takes us.”
On Curtis Davies returning to Kenilworth Road: “Curtis, I had the privilege of meeting him in November. Him and Darren Moore are close. So I sort of knew about Curtis from a distance for a while and Darren doesn't get involved with anyone who aren’t good characters. You can see that on the pitch really, the age he's at, he still gives a really, really good level.”
On Wayne Rooney coming to Kenilworth Road: “They're on a good run lately, they’ve got some real quality individuals in their team, Tom Huddlestone for one and Wayne Rooney who - we’re talking about England’s record goalscorer here, and he can still play, I can assure you. He gets between lines, gets on the half turn, he’s still got that vision and awareness and that competitive edge. He’s just been a phenomenal footballer.
“I’ve been privileged to have gone up against him, and as an England fan myself, maybe not when I was working for Belgium, the pride in what he did for his country, to break Bobby Charlton’s record was staggering, you’re talking about history.
“Wigan played at Old Trafford in 2009, and he ran amok, and this was Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, where if it was 3-0 or 4-0, they would try to make it 6-0 or 7-0, they didn't stop. He was phenomenal with his pace and his power, his work-rate and then his quality on top, just one of our country’s all-time greats.”
Who?
Relegated from the Premier League in 2008, Derby have reached the play-off final twice since but failed to reach the top-flight on both occasions. Manager Phillip Cocu took over in the summer, succeeding Frank Lampard - who led the Rams to a sixth place finish last season.
When and where?
Kick-off is 7:45pm at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday 28th January.
Man in the middle?
In 22 games so far this season, Andy Davies has shown 76 yellow cards and two red cards.
Ticket information
Tickets for this fixture are still available from the Town Ticket Office.
Played before?
Luton and Derby have played each other 42 times in all competitions, our last meeting coming earlier on this campaign in a 2-0 defeat at Pride Park.
Derby narrowly hold the upper hand with 17 wins, while Luton have 15 wins and the two sides have drawn 10 times.
Follow the action
The main blow-by-blow action account of the action from Kenilworth Road will be provided via the Match Centre on the club website, which you can access by clicking here.
The main moments from the game will appear on the Hatters’ social media feeds:
Twitter – @LutonTown
Facebook – www.facebook.com/LutonTown/
Instagram – www.instagram.com/ltfc_official/
