Still happy to see Hatters bounce back from video nasty

Hatters boss John Still was glad to see his side bounce back with victory against Lincoln City on Tuesday after Saturday’s video nasty against Gateshead had been giving him sleepless nights, writes Mark Wood.
Hatters boss John StillHatters boss John Still
Hatters boss John Still

Still didn’t attend Luton’s 5-1 thrashing against Heed in Carlisle at the weekend as he was elsewhere on a mystery scouting missions, but he was pleased they had been able to bounce back with a fine 3-0 victory over the Imps.

He said: “I’ve seen the DVD, couldn’t sleep.

“I didn’t see Saturday, but Alan (Neilson) did and he said as bad as that was as good as it was.

“So it must have been bad Saturday because I thought that was good.

“I thought we were full value for three goals, I thought we were possibly unfortunate not to score more. We were all right, we did OK tonight.”

But Still was pleased with the way his players had responded from Saturday’s horror show in Cumbria.

“This is a funny game football, it really is. I’ve had worse defeats than Saturday, I really have,” he said.

“It’s not losing, it’s how you lose and how you respond to losing.

“And in fairness to the players they responded to losing. It’s like you fall of a horse, the longer you leave it to get back on the harder it is to get back on.

“And the players came out today and got back on that horse and rode it and rode it properly and done the job properly.

“It doesn’t take away how poor Saturday was, I think it shows them that if they all work hard, all remember their jobs and do their jobs, that they can produce a decent performance.”

The players themselves were determined to make amends for their abject performance at the weekend as two-goal hero David Martin confirmed.

“We needed a reaction tonight,” he said. “Obviously as a player you want the games to come thick and fast after Saturday to get that one out of your system.

“And I think today we showed that we were confident today and got a reaction out of us.

“It was a long journey home Saturday and the heads on the coach were very disappointed. You understand the fans travelling all that way it was an horrific performance and tonight we needed to give them something after Saturday’s performance and hopefully we done that.

“As a player you want to put Saturday’s performance right and that was for me personally and I think I say it for all my team-mates as well, we wanted to show Luton fans that Saturday’s performance wasn’t acceptable and we wanted to show them a reaction.

“We wanted to give that tonight, not only for them but also for ourselves as well.

“It’s not just that, it’s out futures as well. We want to kick on and we want to bring Luton up and hopefully we can take this into next season now as well.

“It was a good reaction. Everyone done their jobs tonight, everyone done their battles, everyone worked for each other and it was an out-and-out great performance.”

Midfielder Alex Lawless missed that game through illness as he continued to recuperate from a hamstring injury, but felt for his team-mates at the weekend as he looked on from the sidelines.

He said: “Obviously I wasn’t involved on Saturday but I know when you play and you’re involved in games like that, which I think every player has been, you can’t wait for the next game to come and I think that showed tonight, it was nice to have a game straight away.

“When you’re not playing it’s frustrating regardless of what else is going on and you’re on the side and you think ,I just wish I could help out a bit and stuff like that.

“It’s really, really frustrating and I think over years I’ve come to expect more wins than anything else and obviously not seeing that it does make it really frustrating.

“It’s hugely disappointing. They’re your team-mates and stuff and you don’t want to see them on the back of a defeat like that.

“People don’t go out and want to lose like that. So it’s disappointing to see that.

“I think people underestimate Gateshead, they’ve been a good passing football team in this league for the last few years, so it might sometimes be the problem for them that they are a passing team.

“It doesn’t always get you of this league, but hopefully it will for us at some point, that’d be nice.

“To see the amount of fans going up and the amount of fans that there was, it is frustrating.

“We’ve won tonight and clean sheet and that’s the response we wanted from the squad.

“I think the cliches are you can’t carry too many players and tonight I didn’t really think we carried anyone, everyone chipped in and it just goes to show what can happen when that’s the case.

“It’s up to us to make sure we maintain that and get the points to get us up the table because we know how everyone’s not happy with the league position and there’s a lot of pride left in the end in these last few games.”

And Lawless felt that the Hatters had put in a good performance against a Lincoln City side who are battling for their Blue Square Bet Premier survival.

“Take nothing away from the lads, they are fighting to stay in the league, and we got the better of them tonight,” he said.

“It was nice to get three and it could have been more tonight, although it’s encouraging that we were getting in positions to get more and a clean sheet and home advantage as I would call it here and look forward to Friday now and hopefully same again.

“We needed it after the weekend and the league position we want to put that right as soon as we can.”

Town’s players were applauded off by the home faithful on Tuesday night in stark contrast to the angry send-off they were given against Heed.

Still said: “I always say that if you play for a club where you get good support and you win they’re happy and it’s fantastic.

“And if you’re happy to take the plaudits you’ve got to be happy the other end.

“If you play for Manchester United and you keep losing every week the crowd will get on your back. Well then don’t play for Manchester United, as simple as that.

“If you want to play for the best you’ve got to be the best, simple.”

The Imps offered very little on the night though as Town’s players, with their futures still to play for, showing much more desire and hunger.

Still added: “I’ve worked for Lincoln, they’re a good club, good people, and they put in a very good performance on Saturday against Kidderminster, very good.

“That’s why this I think was such a good win because they put in a very good performance on Saturday.

“I think when you go on the pitch you’ve always got something to play for. At the moment, I said to the players here, I’m going to be quite open I haven’t made my mind up on certain things at the moment, you people have still got a lot to do to show me.”