Saturday 4 October 2008
Coca-Cola Leaggue 2
Bradford City vs Luton Town

A warm welcome this afternoon to Mick Harford, his staff, players and the Luton Town supporters.

We set a good standard at the beginning of the season and we've probably just slipped below that in the last two games.

But if you look at our three defeats so far, I would imagine that Shrewsbury will be one of the toughest places for teams to visit. And Aldershot, because of the surroundings, will be the same.

The Bournemouth game here a fortnight ago was hopefully a one off. You will get results like that during the season and it's up to us to bounce back now and get back to the standards we have been setting.

We have to be positive and we will be, which is why I'm looking forward to a good performance from us this afternoon and hopefully the right result.

The players are in no doubt that our standards have slipped a little bit but it won't take much to get back to doing what we have been previously.

As with Bournemouth, people might look at the league table and see Luton right down there at the bottom but we all know why.

We saw with Bournemouth that in adversity you get stronger and Luton have another wily and experienced manager in Mick Harford.

I would imagine they will come to win games to get back the points they have been docked and we can expect another tough game.

They have brought in a few loan players and have done all right away from home with two wins. But regardless of tactics and what systems teams use when they come here, it's up to us to overcome all that individually and collectively.

It must be a nightmare for Luton to start so far back. I'm especially disappointed for the supporters as much as the players and staff and I've got real sympathy for their plight.

But for 90 minutes this afternoon we've got to concentrate on our own performance.

Last week was particularly disappointing for TJ and we're all glad that he has come through fine.

He has been waiting to get his chance and then to suffer a knock which will rule him out of today's game is a real frustration for the lad. But unfortunately that's part and parcel of football and these things happen.

We've had a few injuries lately with Thorney and Paul Arnison missing last week and now Lee Bullock is out. Chris Brandon is also going to be out for up to 12 weeks after undergoing an operation on his ankle on Monday.

But every club will get those kind of setbacks during a season and hopefully we've got a big enough squad to deal with them.

Enjoy the game

Stuart McCall.