Furlong may return for FA Cup match

Furlong: May return

Furlong, who is 39 but still going strong, picked up a hamstring injury in the defeat to Everton, will face a late fitness test to be ready for the Brentford match, and is Luton's only real injury worry. Richard Langley, Paul Underwood and Paul Showler are all still out with long-term injuries, and players such as Keith Keane, Sam Parkin and Paul Peschisolido are not yet ready to return to the team because of injuries still being carried. Alan Goodall should return to the team in place of Richard Jackson after completing a suspension after getting sent off at Brighton & Hove Albion. Drew Talbot is also a slight doubt, although he did manage about 20 minutes on Tuesday night against Carlisle United. Blackwell may instead favour playing Calvin Andrew with Furlong up front, or maybe even Andrew on his own. I'd like to see Ryan Charles given a go, as Andrew doesn't seem to be good enough, and playing one striker up front certainly isn't working.

For Brentford, the main injury news on the BBC is that left-back Lewis Emanuel has an ankle injury, so he will be unable to play for Terry Butcher's side tomorrow. Which is fortunate, because I wasn't looking forward to facing him again, I saw him at Kenilworth Road last season and he caused us a few problems. Anyway, Darius Charles will replace Lewis, and there may be returns for Charlie Ide and Ricky Shakes. Unfortunately, Jose Mourinho is still out for Brentford, and is a couple of weeks away from match fitness. His name is something like that anyway, but it doesn't really matter what his name is to most Luton fans, as he won't be playing against us.

In recent years, Luton have had a decent record in the FA Cup, with the last time us not being in the Third Round being in 2002-03. Although admittedly, in the last couple of years, getting to the Third Round wasn't really much of an achievement. For the record, Luton have played Brentford four times in the FA Cup, including three memorable occasions in 1952, that saw a 2-2 draw in the first match at Kenilworth Road, a 0-0 draw at Brentford before a replay after extra-time at Kenilworth Road saw Luton victorious with a 3-2 win. Luton went on to the Sixth Round that year, losing to Arsenal, the eventual losing finalists. Fascinating stuff. The last time the two met in the FA Cup was in the glorious 2004-05 season. Luton lost. However, we did beat Brentford in the league later on that year in a memorable occasion. Brkovic and Enoch scored, take note Blackwell. The goals are probably available on YouTube.

We haven't forgotten Kevin. Or at least I haven't.