Town's squad will be stretched for Morecambe trip

Luton Town's squad strength will be tested to the full when they travel to Morecambe tomorrow evening according to boss Nathan Jones.
Andrew Shinnie is a doubt for tomorrow's trip to MorecambeAndrew Shinnie is a doubt for tomorrow's trip to Morecambe
Andrew Shinnie is a doubt for tomorrow's trip to Morecambe

The Hatters chief could be without Andrew Shinnie (ankle), Alan McCormack (groin), Elliot Lee (calf) and Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu (suspension) for the clash, with Luke Berry and Lawson D’Ath already ruled out.

Jones said: “We’ve got to wait for everything today, wait until the dust settles and see where we are, as as they’re in later today.

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“It’s going to test our squad and praise the lord, we’ve got a strong enough one to do it.

“We want as many available as we can. We go from a week ago, having 20 fit, only Lawson D’Ath who’s on the comeback trail, with any kind of knock, to now with potentially six or seven that could be missing or have the threat of missing.

“So it’s put a strain, but thankfully we have a real strong squad and whatever side I put out there will be capable of winning a football game.”

On Shinnie, who went off after 30 minutes of the 1-0 win over Chesterfield, Jones continued: “I think he’s just rolled his ankle slightly, so it’s whether he feels good enough and his pain isn’t that painful that he can’t go through it.

“That’s the only thing with him, so we’ll just see.”

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McCormack saw his ever present run of starts in the league ended as Jones didn’t want to risk the groin problem picked up at Wycombe.

He continued: “The thing with him is we have to be patient because minor things could turn into big things in terms of muscular injuries, so we don’t really gamble on that.

“That’s why he didn’t play Saturday, it was too soon a game for him, so we’ll see how he is today and make a judgement.”

Striker Lee could once again miss the trip after Aaron Jarvis was named on the bench at the weekend, with Jones saying: “He’s one, again, the ones that are doubts. none of them are big doubts in terms of guaranteed not to be.

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“They were all touch and go, so what we’re doing, we’re taking it day by day.

“If they weren’t right for Saturday, hopefully they’ll be right for tomorrow, if they weren’t right for tomorrow, then they should definitely be right for Saturday, so there’s a few like that who are touch and go.”

Midfielder D’Ath, who is still yet to feature this term is getting closer though, as Jones said: “He’s doing very well, he’s back running.

“So he’ll be fully integrating with us in a weeks time and once he does that, then we can push him on a little bit.”

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Jones’s selection issues will cut down his chances of being able to play the team full of fighters he had hinted at doing in the aftermath of the 2-1 win at Wycombe too, as he added: “It would be a bigger decision if I had a full squad available.

“If I did then I think we would consider certain aspects of who we played and so on, I might probably have a lot of my decisions made for me this week.

“But I’ve got people who are in good form and it’s important that we use that.”