Still believes Town squad have the ability to cope with pressure

Hatters boss John Still believes he has a squad capable of playing under the pressure of being overwhelming favourites in the majority of their games this season, writes Mike Simmonds.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Aug 2013, 10:50 BST
John StillJohn Still
John Still

Town start their Skrill Premier home campaign against Salisbury City at Kenilworth Road this evening, with nothing less than a victory expected by the Hatters faithful.

Still said: “Pressure is what you put on yourself, I don’t put pressure on players, I don’t think that’s the right way of doing it, I remind them of their responsibilities.

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“I think whenever you get a very, very well supported club which we do have here, there’s a bigger expectation.

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“I’ll be honest with you, when I brought players in here, even the younger ones, I only bought players who I thought would be mentally strong enough to deal with it.

“There’s no doubt about it, it can put people under pressure, but I have this thing it makes the strong strong and the weak weaker.

“I believe that the players here are mentally strong enough to deal with playing for a well supported club.

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“Every time you lose one the next one becomes more important. If you play for well supported club, the pressure is there.”

Town’s home record was indifferent at best last year, as they claimed 37 points from a possible 69, losing to the likes of AFC Telford, Hyde, Dartford and Braintree.

On his hopes for an improved return this term, Still added: “What I’ve learned over the years, is really, really simple. Get more points than anyone else.

“If you won 23 away games and won five at home, people would only know you won the league.

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“Would your home support be that happy? Probably not, but if you won the league, they’d be happy.

“It’s always great to have a good home record, of course it is, because it’s a big thing to play in front of most of your supporters.

“But I’d sooner get promoted than win 23 home games and not get promoted.

“It would be great to do it with a really good home run, but however we do it, it doesn’t matter.”

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