Vassell hopeful of keeping his place for Luton

The summer signing from Truro City has scored twice in his last two matches to take his tally to five for the season.

However, leading scorer Danny Hylton is available now after completing his two game suspension, while loanee Ollie Palmer comes into consideration too, as Vassell said: “I say it all the time. I just go about preparing right for the games and just doing everything I can to make sure I’m in the squad and playing.

“With Hylts coming back in, it’s good for the lads because we know he gives us that goal threat.

“We've been trying to chip in in the meantime but he does give us that platform to go off.

“With Ollie Palmer coming in, I realise he’s a big fella, so it gives us that other option. Maybe when we come up against teams that aren’t really going to press us and are just going to sit in, maybe he’ll come into effect then.

“We’ve all got different traits and it will be good to see how he (Nathan Jones) mixes it up and how we all play together."

Vassell might well have been talking to the press with six goals to his name, after missing a virtually open goal from a matter of yards against the Robins in midweek after he failed to connect properly with Jordan Cook’s cross.

The striker continued: “It came across and I didn’t see the ball until it was literally on my foot. Well, it didn’t really hit my foot in the right position. I squandered that one but got one back.

“It might have been Pell (Mpanzu) that passed it to me, but it was just instinctively touch, turn and shoot and it went in through the keeper’s legs.

“It’s always good to score a goal but I’m disappointed with the end result.”

The 23-year-old admitted there was a huge level of frustration amongst the side with the manner in which Luton were beaten by the struggling Robins in midweek.

He said: “We went into this game looking to win it. I don’t think we took their position in the league for granted, it just felt like we were chasing the game from the start.

“Sometimes it just goes like that and won’t go in for you. But we kept at it and we got one back before half time and set ourselves a good platform to go out and get a result from the game.

“But then they hit us on the counter, it goes 3-1 and we’re back to chasing the game again.

“It was tough. Their shape, they were quite deep and they didn’t really press our back four in any way, so we got a lot of the ball.

“But when it came to having play in the final third, there wasn't a lot of space in there and I don’t think we really worked it well enough.

“We need to tighten up on counter attacks. If we’re shelling balls forward and moving players up the pitch, we’ve got to get back as well because we can get stung on the counter and it just put the game out of reach.”

However, Vassell was confident of a reaction against the Mariners this afternoon, adding: “It stings, it stings a lot. We’ve just got to get our heads down, think about it but don’t dwell on it, then come back in, train hard for Saturday’s game and go out and win.

“I don’t know what the emphasis is going to be on that game but we normally go out and just try to play.”