Tomorrow’s game could see Town move to within one point of safety against a Stoke side who are unbeaten in their last two matches.
The Potters find themselves in 20th position and five points above the Hatters at the start of play but in the last six matches, Town rank 11th in the Championship form table with three wins and three losses.
International supporters can stream and follow the game from Kenilworth Road live on iFollow Hatters. Subscribers can tune into Simon Pitts’ full match commentary as well.
Graeme Jones said:
(Please note these quotes are taken from Graeme’s press conference on Friday)
On recent performances adding belief: “I think it has given everybody belief but we’ve had that belief when we haven’t been getting those results. We’ve had that belief in amongst staff and players through performances but obviously it has helped having everybody fit as well now.
“You’ve got a full choice squad to choose from, that helps for any manager. We had a long period from Brentford to maybe West Brom away or Derby at home where for two months we didn’t have that choice. This week we’ve been rocked a little bit but thankfully towards the end of the week we’ve got a little bit of choice again. I think it has given everybody belief but in this football club, in the players and the staff it has always been there.”
On Stoke’s threat: “I know it sounds so boring for everybody but how can I think about anything else. All my attention needs to go into Stoke City who have got some really, really good individuals and they’re a very good team who have spent a lot of money in the last two, three years. They’re obviously down there but it’s just about the next team turning up, we’ve got to forget about individuals and just concentrate on our standards and reproducing levels again.”
On his team’s recent development: “What they have done is developed and improved. We’ve got a lot of Championship players now in our team but it has taken the difficult times we’ve been through, it has taken a lot of lessons, some big disappointments and they had to be handled the right way because if you’re a blaming type of club or a blaming type of staff then you’re just going to have fractions and divide.
“We’ve manage to be very level-headed about it, we’ve managed to see it as a learning curve when everybody else was trying to cause division from the outside talking about bottom of the league and they’re not competitive and they’re this and they’re that.”
Who?
Winners of the League Cup in 1972, Stoke have enjoyed the majority of success from the 70s onwards as they later won the Division Two title in 1993 and went on to spend ten years in the top flight from 2008 – before getting relegated in 2018.
They reached the FA Cup final in 2011 but narrowly lost 1-0 to Manchester City. The following season they were in the Europa League and made it to the round of 32 stage.
When and where?
Kick-off is 3pm on Saturday 29th February at Kenilworth Road.
Man in the middle?
The referee for tomorrow’s Sky Bet Championship fixture is Andy Woolmer – who has taken charge of 28 games this season, dishing out 74 yellows and three red cards.
Ticket information
Tickets for this match are sold out.
Played before?
The last time the two sides met was in December – when Stoke were 3-0 victors on the night.
Stoke last came to Kenilworth Road in 2015 and they won on penalties in the League Cup clash. They also hold the superior head to head record too, winning 18 of the 42 meetings, compared with Town’s 11 wins.
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. (*Please note that the club’s Live Text will appear only by accessing through an internet browser, users of the Luton Town FC app will receive updates from Opta)
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/
