Shinnie wants Town to take top spot

Hatters midfielder Andrew Shinnie wants his side to finish 2018 on top of League One.
Hatters midfielder Andrew ShinnieHatters midfielder Andrew Shinnie
Hatters midfielder Andrew Shinnie

The Hatters could manage the feat for the first time this season if they win at Walsall today and leaders Portsmouth fail to emerge victorious from their trip to Fleetwood Town.

Shinnie said: “It’s an incentive, you want to be at top of the league, but we don’t really need anymore incentive.

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"We’re a hungry bunch of players and you can see that on the pitch.

"Even when we’re not at our best, we’re still fighting, trying to give our all and even if we’re not playing our football we’ll still try and hang in and battle and that’s what we did (against Scunthorpe).

"We weren’t at our best all by any means, but we still managed to grind a 2-0 win out so happy days.”

Leaders Pompey fell to a 2-0 defeat at Gillingham on Boxing Day which saw Luton just a point behind them ahead of today’s game.

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Shinnie admitted that he had known of the outcome at the Priestfield ahead of their clash with Scunthorpe, saying: "Yes, we were warming up near the fans and were getting that shouted at us.

"I don’t know if everyone was aware, but it doesn’t change our gameplan.

"We wanted to come here and win and I don’t think it affected us, but to be fair, we were a bit slow out of the traps.

"That can happen, we’ve been brilliant all season, we weren’t at our best but still got two goals, kept a clean sheet and came away with the three points.”

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Boss Nathan Jones wasn’t getting too carried away with his side's amazing run of seven straight wins, despite Luton reaching their half century of points before the turn of the year.

He said: “We’re only early in and it’s a healthy gap, but we’re only just over half way now.

"It’s a long way to go and we’re not getting carried away.

"We have 50 points after 24 games, is a wonderful thing, but we’ve got to make sure we continue that."

After what will be their third game in eight days. Shinnie admitted it would be tough, but knew the Saddlers are in exactly the same position.

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He added: "It will be difficult, but every team is the same, everyone’s got the same schedule.

"It’s not like we’re the only one doing it, Walsall have also had games, so we’ll recover right, get some rest in, travelling overnight, go there and prepare.

"We'll try to put on another performance and get three points."