Sweet proclaims Buckle is in charge for the long term despite Robinson reports

The Northern Ireland U21 boss had a successful spell with Hatters during his playing career, making over 150 appearance for the club, and reports in the Irish media had linked him with a return.

That was news to Sweet though as he said: “I think the last time I spoke to Robbo was when I gave him a cheque!

“Robbo’s a great lad but I know nothing about this story and I can categorically tell you there are no plans at all to be holding any interviews other than this one.

“Paul’s (Buckle) here for the long term. Paul’s here to rejuvenate our squad which we are in the midst of doing and I think we’re pretty much there.

“There are other things with Paul’s ability we want to use within our club to ensure that we’ve got improved scouting, and football knowledge.

“People don’t always know it but Paul’s got a lot of strength and depth at senior level to help us with that process.”

Sweet wasn’t surprised such reports had circulated though after both Richard Money and Gary Brabin were replaced at similar stages of the season in the past two years.

He continued: “I can understand the speculation as we’ve been serial sackers for the last three years, let’s not beat around the bush here.

“That’s not what we’re here to do. We became custodians on the back of a strong cornerstone of stability.

“We want stability at this football club and we’re going to get it. We certainly have stability I think in the boardroom, we have financial stability even though it costs us money, and we believe we have got the beginning of stability in squad and management team.

“Sometimes what you’ve got to do is bake the cake, put it in the oven and let it rise, so I think we should do that.

“We’ve got to make things happen and allow it to happen naturally, run its course and see what comes out at the end of the season.”

When asked if he had felt any pressure over a poor run of form that had seen Town drop 14 points behind leaders Grimsby after yet another disappointing defeat at Dartford on Tuesday night, Buckle added: “Not really. If you lose in a Luton shirt it’s the end of the world for some, it’s not the end of the world for us.

“We’re just over half way through our season, so judge us at the end, I think that would be fair, for me, the staff, the players.

“I’m very aware of the managers who have been here before and put a lot of hard work in and know how much it takes out of a manager to change teams around.

“Only this summer we had 30 pros here and needed changing around in my opinion, so it takes time.

“There’s a long way to go. Write the team off at you’re peril.

“We’ve got no god given right to just romp through this league.

“If it was that easy it would have been done in the first season, but it’s a tough old league.

“I’ve been here before, it’s going to be a long slog and going to take a lot of grit and determination to see us through, we know that.”

Although Buckle conceded automatic promotion was now a long shot, he wants to be given the time to take Luton back into the Football League as he added: “Hopefully everybody at this football club will get that time. We do need that stability.

“With only the one going up makes it doubly hard. If it’s the play-offs again which you’d have to say at the moment (is most likely), as Grimsby are flying and so are Wrexham. Whichever way we do it, we’ve got to give it our all to try and get up.”