PAUL Hurst believes Grimsby Town can use the influential Kenilworth Road crowd to their advantage when they take on Luton tomorrow (5.30pm).
With an average home attendance of over 5,500 last season, the Hatters are one of the few Conference Premier teams that can boast bigger gates than the Mariners.
The vociferous crowd is an important weapon for John Still's team – but Town's joint boss insists the locals can actually be his side's 12th man in tomorrow's televised clash.
He told the Telegraph: "This is one club that gets more fans than us and they can influence how their team plays sometimes.
"Kenilworth Road is the kind of place where if we can quieten the big crowd and turn them against their own team, they can become our 12th man and do a job for us.
"If we do that, the pressure could weigh heavy on Luton, but if they get a head of steam up and the crowd get right behind them, it will be a tough afternoon."
Hurst admits that it was a sombre start to the week on Monday morning, following last weekend's dismal defeat to Nuneaton.
And he has called for a marked improvement on that showing when they travel south tomorrow.
He said: "I don't like losing and I especially don't like losing in the manner that we did.
"We had a bad weekend and then training was solemn on Monday morning.
"Training has gone up a notch in terms of intensity and there's been a bit more aggression shown by the group, but the test will come tomorrow.
"First and foremost is about working hard and being prepared to battle.
"As basic as that is, if you truly give everything you can to make things hard for your opponent, you won't get the type of performance that we did last Saturday.
"We've got to be better and braver in order to get on the ball tomorrow.
"Without it, we've got to make life harder for the opposition.
"If we do that, we will give Luton a good game.
"It would be nice to come back from last weekend's defeat with a positive result.
"Luton is a difficult place to go and if we can come back with a good result, it will have been be a good weekend for us.
"Hopefully then I'll have a better Sunday than I did last week."
