By Rob Carbon
Luton Town boss Nathan Jones will return to the Land of his Fathers for the fourth time this year hoping to make it a clean sweep at Cardiff City Stadium tonight (Tuesday).
Having already beaten Swansea City twice, Rhondda-boy Jones is seeking a double over Steve Morison’s Cardiff team as he tries to get last season’s play-off semi-finalists climbing into the top half of the table.
The Hatters picked up a point in a 1-1 draw at home against high flying Sheffield Untied, while the Bluebirds were held to a goalless draw at home to Preston.
Both teams are struggling for goals – Cardiff have scored three in six and Luton four – and Morison has been waiting five hours and 43 minutes to see his side hit the back of the net.
The last goal for the Bluebirds came from new signing Jaden Philogene in the 17th minute of the 1-0 home win over Birmingham on 13 August. That’s despite peppering the Preston goal with 21 shots at the weekend.
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“It was frustrating but it was another clean sheet at home. That’s now three home games without conceding,” said City defender Perry Ng.
“Our tempo was a bit slow at the weekend and we’re just lacking a bit of edge. Our style of play is really good and we’re battering teams at home – on another day we could have scored two or three.
“We need that little bit of luck and we’ve just got to go again against Luton and make sure we take our chances.
“Luton are much more direct than Preston and will try to run all over us, so we’ve got to be prepared for that.”
Morison has already brought in 16 new players and is hoping for one more before the transfer window closes this week.
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A striker remains his top target, with Jordan Hugill’s omission from the Norwich City squad at the weekend fuelling speculation he may return to the Welsh capital after his loan spell last season.
“We are being choosy because we want a certain type of player – it’s a waiting game. We’ll keep plugging away and see how we get on between now and Thursday,” said Morison.
“It’s a waiting game. It does make me laugh when people think we are not looking for players in certain areas of the pitch.
“We are! We haven’t just started looking by the way, we have been looking since the start of this whole process.
“We have missed out on a couple, but outside of that, there hasn’t really been anyone who takes our fancy.
“We will keep plugging away and see how we get on between now and Thursday.”