Stewart Donald has, once again, taken to Twitter to deny another takeover, this time from a consortium of Chinese businessmen, who have reportedly offered £50m. Donald posted: “Just the latest rumour. No idea if someone is planning a bid.” However, it is clear that the club need more investment to strengthen in the summer, whatever league we are in and a way round this could be for SD to reduce his shareholding and invite someone else on board.
In other news, Jon McLaughlin reckons that the games at Fleetwood Town and Southend United are not irrelevant. “Every game matters, no matter what,” said McLaughlin. “Southend are fighting relegation, Fleetwood will want to have a big day and get a result against Sunderland. They’re difficult places to go so you’ve got to give it your full attention and give those teams the respect they deserve, we’re in the same division as them. And there’s still things to play for. Until you’re mathematically out of it, until it’s done, you’ve got to keep putting in performances for the fans, for the club, for yourselves. If you come up short and you’ve got to continue in the play-offs you need that form and that mentality going into those games because they come around very quick. We’ve just got to keep focused, keep working hard, and if we have to do it via the play-off route, there’s players in that dressing room, myself included, that have done it that way before. You just have to believe that over two legs we’ve got more than enough to beat any other team, whoever it is we face. We thought it was going to be a race just between ourselves, Portsmouth and Barnsley (for second) but with Luton’s current form it’s frustrating that in these last five or six games we’ve dropped so many points. The lads have given everything and they keep giving everything but you can’t dwell on what could have been. Promotion is still our objective and we’ll keep going and try to win every game. If we have to win five games or two games, that’s what we’ll do.”
Jack Ross is also looking to play a full-strength team at Fleetwood Town on Tuesday night. “We’ll look how everyone is physically ahead of Fleetwood, with the games coming around so quickly. But we want to win so that we go into the last weekend still with that opportunity. Of course, we understand it is a long shot, but we want to finish the season in the best possible way. We still have an outside chance of achieving what we want to automatically, albeit a long shot. But the only way that even becomes a possibility is if we win our game in hand on Tuesday.”
The manager is also delighted to have Chris Maguire back in the fold. “It’s nice to have him back,” said Ross. “To suffer a leg break so late in the season, there’s always that fear he won’t play again in the season, so to have him available is a real bonus. He’s a good option for us to have off the bench, because he’s someone who can give us that little bit of spark. We’re hoping he’ll return to some form of training with us in the next week,” said Ross. “How close he would be to being involved, we’d have to wait and see.”
It also looks like Duncan Watmore’s season might not be over after all. Ross explained: Duncan Watmore is getting close to fitness, it's ironic we're at such a late stage of the season and probably the healthiest we've been which will stand us in good stead. We're hoping Duncan return to some form of part training with us in the next week. So if the season does extend, he would be starting to work towards full training. How close he would be to being involved, we'd have to wait and see. Even that would be a bonus because we thought the season was over for him. The thing is, we've always wanted to give him the summer off because he hasn't had one for quite a few years because of all his injuries, but he's ahead of schedule. There's no pressure on him but that may be an added bonus for him."
Ross will also continue to assess the fitness of Aiden McGeady, who has been playing despite a broken bone in his foot. "We will look at him on a day to day basis," Ross said. "Even on Friday we had a conversation and he is improving. He did terrifically well to get through 90 minutes but with the desire he had to produce that kind of performance, we'll chat again at the beginning of the week. We'll look how everyone is physically ahead of Fleetwood, with the games coming round so quickly. We want to win so that we go into the last weekend still with that opportunity. Of course we understand it is a long shot, but we want to finish the season in the best possible way.”
