Northampton Town take on Luton Town on Saturday 29th August,  at the PTS Academy stadium at 1.30pm, in what will be both sides final friendly ahead of the new season. 

Team News

Keith Curle has no new injury concerns ahead of Saturday's friendly, Nicky Adams, Scott Pollock and Harry Smith are recovering from minor knocks while Shaun McWilliams is still on the road to recovery for the Cobblers. 

Nathan Jones has a fully fit side to select from coming into Saturday's game with no new injury concerns following their three-nil win against National League side Wealdstone on Tuesday night. 

Predicted line-ups

Both sides will make lots of changes throughout the match, making it difficult to predict who may make the starting 11.

Cobblers boss Keith Curle is expected to set up in his traditional 3-5-2 system which can become 5-3-2 when defending. Curle could also field trialists Connor Johnson, Antonio German, Samir Carruthers and Ricky Korboa who have all been training with the League One side in pre-season. 

Northampton Town: Steve Arnold, Luka Racic, Cian Bolger, Fraser Horsfall, Michael Harriman, Ryan Watson, Chris Lines, Morgan Roberts, Sam Hoskins, Antonio German (trialist), Ricky Korboa (trialist).

The Hatters are expected to line up in their traditional 4-4-3 system. 

Luton Town: Simon Sluga, Peter Kioso, Sonny Bradley, Matthew Pearson, Corey Panter, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Glen Rea, George Moncur, Elliot Lee, James Collins, Kazenga LuaLua.

Form Guide

Keith Curle's Northampton side are undefeated in pre-season having won against their youth team and Leyton Orient as well as a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion's U23's.

Nathan Jones' side were out of action for less than a month with their last Championship game against Blackburn Rovers on 22nd July, where they won 3-2. During pre-season they've faced Berkhamsted, Stevenage and Wealdstone and are yet to concede a goal. 

Northampton Town: DWWWWL

Luton Town: WWWWWD

Ones to watch

Keith Curle could field new central defenders Cian Bolger and Luka Racic for the second time alongside Fraser Horsfall as they look to build a new back line. 

It is likely that last seasons top scorer for the Cobblers, Sam Hoskins, will feature in any one of three forward positions: up top, out wide or behind the striker. He will look to add to his tally in pre-season after scoring last time out against Leyton Orient. 

Michael Harriman also impressed with a wonderful assist last time out against Leyton Orient. Harriman seemed a different player on return for the play-offs at the end of last seaosn, impressing many Cobblers fans. The experienced full back will hope to have an even better League One campaign this time out. 

As for the Hatters, their top scorer last season in the Championship with 14 goals, James Collins will look to cause problems to a Northampton defence which is still bonding. Collins will be familiar with Northampton having helped lead them to the League Two title in 2016, scoring 8 goals in 21 appearances and became a fans favourite.

Luton will look to the experience of winger Kazenga LuaLua to cause a threat both on Saturday throughout the season. The English-Congolese winger has experience in England from the Premier League down to League One and knows how to put a defence on edge. 

Previous meetings

The two sides have met a total of 56 times, the first dating back to an FA Cup clash in 1911. Since then the Cobblers have come out on top 21 times, the score being shared seven times and Luton claiming victory on the other 28 occasions. 

The last time the sides met in a competitive match was in 2016 when the Cobblers won 2-0 on the day they lifted the League Two title in 2016. 

Where to watch 

Northampton Town will be streaming the game live for free on their YouTube channel. The link can be found below. 

Pre-match quotes

Following the Cobblers draw with West Brom's U23's side, assistant manager has promised plenty of minutes for the whole squad. He told the clubs website:

"We will look to bed things down a little more against Luton. There will still be some rotation to share the minutes around, but we will see more of our planning in place."