Peacemaker O’Donnell backs skipper Henry to the hilt after fan altercation

Peacemaker JJ O’Donnell has urged everyone connected with the club to come together and help the Hatters push for promotion, writes Mark Wood.
L13-1128     23/9/13  MBLN
LTFC v Lincoln City.
wk 39 MW JXL13-1128     23/9/13  MBLN
LTFC v Lincoln City.
wk 39 MW JX
L13-1128 23/9/13 MBLN LTFC v Lincoln City. wk 39 MW JX

The young winger was quickly on the scene after the final whistle on Saturday as skipper Ronnie Henry had an altercation with a member of the crowd after Luton 3-2 comeback win over Lincoln City.

O’Donnell did his best to usher Henry away from the flashpoint and backed his captain to the hilt after the match, urging all of Luton’s fans to get firmly behind the players.

He said: “I think someone said something to Ronnie about maybe the boys weren’t doing something right. I thought at first it was an argument, maybe Ronnie had had something to say.

“But Ronnie was just literally trying to talk to the bloke. I think the bloke said something to Ronnie about the lads aren’t doing it or something.

“And Ronnie was just saying to him if you don’t want to support the boys, don’t come.

“Ronnie’s spot on because we need everyone. There’s no point having the players there and the supporters not with us because there’s a divide then.

“And if you want to get promotion with a club like Luton you need everybody, and hopefully from now on the supporters will get behind us for 90 minutes as they have done all the time I’ve played and we can try and win as many games of football as possible.

“It’s a club thing here. Maybe Ronnie had an opinion with what someone said to him, but we need to stick together, everyone needs to stick together,

“I think Ronnie’s saying, if people don’t want to come and support us then there’s no point coming because we are trying to do the best for the football club. We’re not making mistakes on purpose, we’re no doing things on purpose, we all want to win, we all want to try and get this club promoted and we need the supporters to try and help us.

“They’re a massive tool here at Kenilworth Road, you get 6,000 of them, and we need them as much as we need the players and everyone to come together and try and get this club back to where it needs to be.”

Another good crowd of 6,203 had turned out for the victory over the Imps and O’Donnell admitted sides try to turn the home crowd on Town’s players and use it to their advantage.

“I know the lads at Wrexham didn’t play very well and they got beat 2-0, but if you don’t play very well you’ve got to try and get your point away from home and try and nick a winner here,” he continued.

“The fans will play a big part for us in that this season. They’ve got to try and keep getting behind us for 90 minutes.

“It’s frustrating for them, I understand totally, that when teams come here they try and frustrate us and try and frustrate the crowd and that’s what teams do.

“They’re coming to Kenilworth Road, trying to keep it quiet for 30 minutes and the crowd maybe gets on our back a little bit and they think we’ll crumble.

“If we can work together as staff and supporters and keep going for 90 minutes, 95 minutes sometimes, then I think we’ll get to where we want to be.”

And the youngster believes that if Luton’s fans can get behind them for the whole game, opposition teams will ‘crumble’ as a result.

He added: “We need the supporters for 90 minutes, we need them from minute one to minute 95 if you like.

“They’ll be a major fact this year in getting us to where we want to be because when teams come here it is frightening.

“You’ve got 6,000 fans shouting behind you and teams come here and they will crumble.

“And if we can work together as players supporters and management staff then we’ll get to where we want to be.”