Kevin Foley, Chris Coyne and Matthew Spring, who hasn't even played for Luton in his second spell at the club yet, all picked up injuries in or before the cup defeat against Blackburn at the weekend, bringing the number of newly injured players at the club up to six in the last three games. First-team players such as Leon Barnett, Ahmet Brkovic, Marcus Heikkinen and Warren Feeney are also injured, and new striker Drew Talbot, whose performance was the only positive out of Saturday, may struggle due to being asked to play 5 matches in 18 days just after recovering from injury. Marlon Beresford is also struggling with a back injury, leaving the Luton squad down to the bare bones. Those fit players in the squad are as follows:
Goalkeepers: Beresford(?), Brill, Barrett
Defenders: Davis, Perrett, Keane, Ross, Pendleton
Midfielders: Spring(?), Robinson, Morgan, Langley, Emanuel, Stevens, Bell, O'Leary
Strikers: Boyd, Talbot
This amounts to 18 players in total in the squad who should be available tomorrow. Out of these, Beresford and Spring are arguably slightly injured anyway, bringing the total down to 16. Of these remaining 16, Ross and Pendleton have never played first-team football before. Stevens has only featured once as well, leaving a possible 13 fit players. Only three of these 12 are defenders, and one of those is Keith Keane. Emanuel can drop back into defence, but the problem there is that Sol Davis is available, so he will have to play out of position. The midfield should be slightly stronger, with at least 7 available tomorrow. However, this has been our weakest part of the team, and the likely substitutes will include O'Leary and Stevens, which probably won't inspire much confidence. As for the strikers, there are only two. You could argue Morgan is, making three, but he doesn't perform consistently, so we are relying a lot on him performing tomorrow. Boyd has also been terrible recently, so we are also relying on Talbot a lot as well. Considering who is unfit and injured at the moment, if those players don't make it back, the worst case scenario could be this team:
GK: Brill
DL: Emanuel
DC: Perrett
DC: Keane
DR: Davis
ML: Morgan
MC: Langley
MC: Robinson
MR: Bell
SC: Boyd
SC: Talbot
Subs: Barrett, Ross, O'Leary, Stevens, A.N.Other
Of course, we may sign someone else in time for tomorrow - we apparently have players lined up. Of course, Spring and Beresford may also be fit. However, the team that may line up looks worryingly too similar to the team that has struggled in recent matches, particularly the midfield. Coventry have also been in very bad form in recent matches, which is the only positive.
Anyone think we can win tomorrow? I'll bring my boots just in case.