'We know what we're up against': Michael Appleton delivers Luton Town verdict as Blackpool return to Bloomfield Road

The Seasiders return to home comforts on Saturday after back-to-back journeys to the Midlands to face Coventry City and West Brom respectively.

Appleton’s men were deserved winners against the Sky Blues last weekend following an excellent display at the CBS Arena.

But their performance levels dropped off dramatically at the Hawthorns in midweek as they slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat to the Baggies.

Once again Blackpool’s energy levels were called into question, but Appleton doesn’t expect that to be an issue when they take on the Hatters at Bloomfield Road.

“I’m just glad we’ve got an extra day,” Pool’s head coach said.

“It was a quick turnaround from Saturday to the West Brom game and we’ve had to come back down to the Midlands.

“But with it being a Tuesday game rather than a Wednesday, we’ve now got that extra day which will give us that extra time to look after the players and not do too much.”

Luton, last season’s beaten play-off semi-finalists, sit 10th in the table at this moment in time, only two points off the top six.

Nathan Jones’ side are without a win in their last three games though, drawing 0-0 with Reading in midweek.

Appleton added: “One thing for sure, we know what we’re going to be up against on Saturday. But it’s a home game so I expect the place to be rocking and I’m sure the players will respond to that.

“I expect exactly the same from them as what they’ve been doing this last two or three seasons. They get the ball forward early but they do it with quality.

“They have two strikers who are a handful for anyone at this level, real powerful boys who can run in behind or play with their backs to goal as natural number nines.

“It’s a difficult game, but we will be ready for it because the lads are disappointed, but more so with the manner of the goal we conceded (against West Brom) rather than performance levels because they gave everything without the ball, we just lacked a little bit with the ball.”

Much like the Seasiders, Luton are also having to contend with injury concerns at this moment in time, suffering another two setbacks against Reading on Tuesday night.

Sonny Bradley was stretched off with a knee injury during the first-half before fellow defender Tom Lockyer was also forced to leave the pitch after a clash of heads with Andy Carroll.

“We’ve got all our centre halves out again, reminiscent of last year, and they’ve had to really dig in and I’m proud of that performance in terms of the defensive side,” Jones told our sister paper, Luton Today.

"We’ve never played with a back five like that before, they’re putting in mad shifts and I’m so proud of them for that.

“To keep a clean sheet in the Championship, another clean sheet in the Championship shows we’re a good defensive unit and we can do that.”