Nathan Jones has urged his Hatters to “go on an adventure” in the FA Cup this season, as they prepare to host Harrogate in the third round, despite the Championship being their “bread and butter”.
The Luton manager makes no bones about progress in the Championship being his main priority and though the postponement of four Christmas games – due to a spate of Covid cases – means a fixture pile-up in the league, the manager still has ambitions in the cup.
Still in the memory is given Newcastle a run for their money four years ago in third round, while there’s sense of giving fans what they missed out on last season when coronavirus forced empty stadia clashes against Chelsea in the FA Cup and Manchester United in the Carabao Cup.
Luton’s first ever meeting with Harrogate this lunchtime, presents a good opportunity to beat League Two opposition and get themselves in the hat for a potentially mouthwatering fourth round draw.
Jones said: “A lot of things can happen, the FA Cup’s a wonderful, wonderful competition, one with great history and one that I’ve been very proud to play in and manage in
“Ideally, we’d probably like to win it, or to maybe have a few games and get a real good lucrative draw. We had two wonderful draws last year against Chelsea and Man United, but no fans, we’d like to give the fans something.
“They had a wonderful trip away to Newcastle a few years ago, and we’d like to give them something like that again.
“As with the greatest respect, the Championship’s our bread and butter and we need to do that.
There are big sides that are probably better than us in terms of Man City, Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool that are probably going to win the tournament, so let’s have an adventure and then concentrate on the league.”
Jones penned a new five-and-a-half-year contract on New Year’s Day and declared that two of his ambitions are to lead Luton out at their new Power Court stadium and into the Premier League.
But having risen through the Football League to the Championship with back-to-back promotions, there are still players in Town’s squad that were playing in League Two, so they won’t take Harrogate lightly.
Jones said: “There won’t be any complacency from our side as we don’t all of a sudden think we are a Championship side and we are playing a League Two side, so it’ll be easy. We know where we’ve come from, the humility in the group who know where they’ve come from.
“In recent years we have been Harrogate in the Harrogate v Luton scenario, so we haven’t forgotten where we’ve come from, and that makes us dangerous. Never mind Harrogate being dangerous, we’re dangerous as we’ve evolved and developed into a good side.
“But we also do the basics right and when there’s a giant-killing, or teams from lower leagues beating higher ones, it’s usually because they do the basics better and it means a bit more to them. Well, it will mean plenty to us as we know where we’ve come from, so we haven’t drifted from our National League, League Two, League One days, sufficiently, that this will allow for complacency.
“With the greatest respect, three or four years ago we would have gone up against teams like Harrogate and not expected to win, but would have gone into the game with real confidence because we were a real good side in League Two and a real good side in League One. We are the same now, in the Championship, so we’ll go into it with confidence, but with the greatest respect for a very good Harrogate side.
“There’ll be no fear, no complacency and if we get beaten it will be because Harrogate were better than us on the, not because we would have taken our foot off the gas.”
Town will be without Harry Cornick, who is still recovering from a calf injury, while Admiral Muskwe is with the Zimbabwe squad for the African Cup of Nations. Luke Berry is back in contention and with Town not having played since December 11, Jones is in a rare situation.
“A lot of players need game time now as we missed four games, so it won’t be 11 changes. What we will do is we’ll pick a side to try and win the game against Harrogate, whatever side that is, however we go about it, it will be that kind of side.
“So, it won’t be one that people are rested or anything, as we now have to prepare for Bournemouth, but before Bournemouth, we’ve got a very, very difficult game and that’s the most important thing.
“The good thing is we can use five substitutes, nine on the bench so it will allow us to really freshen up the squad during the game, so that we have maximum potency for the 90 minutes as having not played for the duration we have. I can’t see everyone being right at it for 90 minutes, so it’s a good game for us really.”
And while Town were struck by an outbreak of Covid cases on Christmas Day, Jones is confident the virus won’t have any lingering effects.
He said: “Not everyone’s had symptoms, so we’ve had some people off with Covid, that have just been close contacts, with no symptoms. Some have had Covid with zero symptoms, it’s just that as we test every day, it’s shown up, but they don’t feel any different than they would on a normal day. That’s just the way of the world at the minute.
“Four games cancelled is not ideal as everyone’s just been a little bit de-rhythmed, if you like, and now we’re glad to have this FA Cup as it can get some minutes into people’s legs.
“We’ve got another game on Tuesday as well if we need to use that, and then it’s into Bournemouth and into the five league games We hopefully will gather a bit of momentum along the way as well, so it’s the same for everyone.
“It’s a tough period, but it’s been post lockdown and through Covid times, it’s been very strange anyway, so everyone’s had to adjust.”
