A lot has been said about Luton and their height, as well as our lack of it. Mowbray has spoken about set pieces and how we can stop them, one way is to not give any way, and the other is to master some of the dark arts that we have fallen victim to this season.
DON’T GIVE THEM ANY
"You can only do what you can do on set-plays - the secret is not to give them any! Try to keep the ball down the other end of the pitch as much as you can, try to keep it on the grass as much as you can. Then you have to find a way to stop them.
DARK ARTS
"If you're 5ft 8in, how do you stop a 6ft 3in centre-half who is really aggressive, getting first contact on that ball and heading it towards your net? Our job as coaches is to give them the idea, show them maybe the 'dark arts' of football because a 5ft 8in player is not going to beat a six footer when the ball comes in the box, but he needs to know what he has to do, seconds before the ball comes in, how to use his body, find a way. You have to try and put your body in the way, try to stop them heading the ball with power, without fouling him you have to find a way to disrupt his running pattern."
NULLIFYING PRESTON
"They became really physical, to be honest, in the game. We had to try and keep calm to not give fouls away - they ended up being the team that gave a lot of fouls away because they were chasing the ball. I thought the team handled that situation really well.”
KEEP IT ON THE FLOOR
"We talked about it: keep the ball on the grass, keep it moving, take quick free-kicks, take quick corners, let's keep the ball and play football. You can't stop a team booting it 70 yards up the pitch into your half, of course, and then you have to try and win the headers.
VERY PHYSICAL SIDE
"We do a lot of work on trying to make sure we don't make it a fight, we try to put our bodies in the way, take the knock, get the ball, get the pass away, and now we are playing and we can get our shape again. But I do think this game is going to be more difficult because Luton are a very physical, athletic team who can go almost man-for-man and deny you space. They don't worry about the space behind them because they feel they can deal with it."
