Wanderers Head Coach Steven Schumacher is confident that his side can “apply themselves right” away at Luton Town in Sky Bet League One on Saturday afternoon.
The Whites are on their travels to Kenilworth Road this weekend for a clash against the Hatters, who are managed by former Wanderers loanee Jack Wilshere, aiming to return to winning ways following last weekend’s goalless home draw against Bradford City.
Previewing the fixture in Bedfordshire, Schumacher told Wanderers TV: “The players have played with confidence all year, even when we’ve had a setback, we’ve responded pretty well and we should go into this game with the belief that if we get the game plan right, and apply ourselves properly, we can go and get a result down there.
“We have to stay calm and stay patient and focus on ourselves. We think that we’ve been playing well, performances have been good, results lately have improved.
“It would be nice for us to get in front and start the game well, and then it’s on Luton to come out and get us.
“We’ve got talented players who can hurt teams if we get the ball in the right areas, so we’ll stick to the plan and keep trying to progress the best we can.”
The Head Coach is anticipating a tough game against a Luton outfit who are seventh in the third-tier, a point and a place below Wanderers.
Schumacher continued: “It will be a difficult game. They have obviously had an upturn in fortune since the change in manager and since Jack went in there, they have had some positive results.
“Last weekend at Barnsley didn’t go to plan for them, but they managed to respond in midweek against Huddersfield at home, which looked like an old-school type of Luton performance, high-energy, high-intensity, difficult to play against and they found a way to win the game, so I know it will be a tough test this weekend for our lads.
“It’s not an easy place to go, it’s a tight pitch and it’s difficult sometimes to have loads of control of the game, but that will be the message if we can stand up to Luton and play our football, then we’ve got good players that can hurt them, so if we can continue what we are doing and get another good result like our last one away from home against another team who are in the top six, then we’ll be fine.
“Everybody knows what’s at stake, it’s a game against a team who we feel will be up there at the end of the season, it’s a tough away game, a tough place to go, but if we’ve got aspirations of staying in the mix, then we have to find a way of getting a result out of it.”
Schumacher praised goalkeeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe and his defence after three consecutive clean sheets in the league, and he feels it provides a platform for Wanderers to build on moving forward.
He added: “Clean sheets are important and Teddy has had a few now on the spin which is really good, but the whole team deserve credit for that, it’s a whole team effort to keep the goal first and foremost away from your goal, but if teams to get opportunities, can you get blocks in and can you use your goalkeeper to go and make a save, so of late, we’ve been doing really well, we’ve defended well all season, that’s a good solid platform for us to build from.”
Watch Steven’s full pre-match interview on Wanderers TV by clicking here!
