City striker targeting three points after brace against Cheltenham Town
Striker Reuben Reuben Reid says Exeter City match with Luton Town on Saturday has to be treated as a must win game.
With nine matches to go, Exeter are poised just inside the play-off places – three points ahead of eighth-placed Blackpool.
Saturday’s opponents Luton sit slightly more comfortably in fifth position on 58 points with a game in hand over the Grecians on the run in.
However, The Hatters have only won one of their last six games in all competitions, while City got back to winning ways on Tuesday night by beating Cheltenham Town 3-0. That has set the Grecians up nicely heading into their trip to Kenilworth Road.
“There’s always a general feeling of confidence within the lads,” said Reuben. “[Luton is] another game that we’ve got to go and take three points from. The result on Tuesday was a positive result and a positive performance so hopefully we will go there with a lot of energy and high spirit as well.
“I was just saying this morning to someone. I don’t know if you’d rather play the teams around you because even though they will be tougher games the stakes are a lot higher with regards to the points because you can leap-frog them and that’s another game chalked off.
“You can go above them. So it’s massively important, Luton’s a real big game for both sides and we will be targeting it as a must win.
“They’ve got a good squad and a good side which is proved and backed up by their performances in the league thus far. I know they’re set up well and they’ve got solid players and obviously they’ve got threats going forward.
“But we’ve got to be concentrating on ourselves really. I mean if our game comes out then we’ve got to be confident we can get a positive result.”
City travelled to Fratton Park at the end of January managing to grab a 1-0 win in a cagey game with neither side willing to give up much.
Therefore, it is possible that travelling away to Luton, a team very similar in quality and table position to Portsmouth, could produce a similar atmosphere and result. However, Reuben was not so sure.
“I can’t see into the future,” he said. “It will be a tough game of course. They’re similar to us, we’re in and amongst it. How the game will plan out, I can’t really say. That will just happen how it happens on the day.
“It will be nice for the game to go like that, with less hard work really because the Portsmouth game took a lot out of us. If it were to go like the Portsmouth game, I don’t think there would be too many complaints.”