Clark urges Hatters fans to 'bring the noise' against Trotters
Town travel to the Toughsheet Stadium this weekend
Hatters midfielder Jordan Clark has urged the travelling Luton supporters to ‘bring the noise’ when heading to Bolton Wanderers for the club’s play-off decider on Saturday.
Town travel to the Toughsheet Stadium at the weekend knowing that a victory could see them finish above the dotted line, as long as either Stockport County, Bradford City or Stevenage lose, with a draw for Boro at home to Wigan Athletic enough for Jack Wilshere’s side to overtake their Hertfordshire rivals, as long as they claim all three points against the Trotters. As of yesterday morning, the Hatters had sold 2,800 tickets for the fixture, meaning there will be legions of visiting fans making their way up to Greater Manchester desperate to see their side extend their campaign into May.
With Clark himself hoping to recover from a calf injury and play his part against the team sitting in third spot, he wants a much, much better outcome than this time last season when needing a point to survive in the Championship, were thrashed 5-3 at West Bromwich Albion to suffer a second successive relegation back to League One. Asked for a message to those who will be in the away end, he said: “Thanks for coming, we’re going to need your support as it’s a massive game.
“Just get up there if you can get up there, if not support us from wherever you are and cross your fingers and your toes, just bring your noise like you always have done since I’ve been here and it’s down to us to give you something to shout about on the pitch. We’ll hopefully get a better result than we did on the last day of last season as that was a tough day for everyone, horrible, so it would be nice to get a win and celebrate with the fans afterwards. Knowing we’ve got to a play-off semi would be magic so fingers crossed.
"It is a big game and it should be a good game as well as they’re third in the league. They’re a good side, as the table doesn’t lie and I’m just looking forward to it. We know what happened last year, it was in our own hands and we threw it away. Now it’s not in our hands, but we’re in a good vein of form and we’ve just got to take it as the next game.”
It will be far from easy for the Hatters to achieve their goal of getting into the top six, as they head to a Trotters side who, under Steven Schumacher, have lost just once on home soil this term, that coming on December 29 when beaten 1-0 by Mansfield. They are now 10 undefeated, but have drawn three of their last four contests, as thankfully for Luton, Jack Wilshere’s side can make the journey knowing they are finally some kind of form on the road, as after an 11-game winless run themselves, are now six undefeated outside of Bedfordshire, with three wins.
Clark continued: “It’s an old cliche and everyone probably hates hearing it, but that’s what we said when we went to Wycombe, let’s get back to winning games of football and enjoying football and get these fans going home happy instead of going home miserable and upset because it’s been a tough season. We’re just glad fans are going home happy now and it’s a one-off game. We have to win we know that and if we can keep going for the next three games after that, then happy days.
“We’re on a decent-ish run now and we broke that away day hoodoo which was a nightmare during the season, especially for the fans. The Wycombe game was a big monkey off our back and then we took that into the Vertu games which sometimes they can feel a bit like, do we really need them when we’re trying to get up the league? You can use it as a bit of, it’s kicked us on and we’ve just been rolling with every game that’s come now.
"When you get into that positive mindset and you go into every game thinking you’re going to win, whereas probably previously we’ve thought we’re going into lose and short of confidence which has probably been the first half of the season. It was a big lift for everyone and we’ve just got to use it now and keep momentum going.”
With 12 goals to his name as well making him the club’s leading marksman, then discussing his own form ahead of the fixture, Clark added: “It’s been my best scoring season, the win at Wembley as well which was an added bonus. It’s been nice for me coming from midfield, every midfielder says he needs to add goals and assists to his game, so I’m really pleased I’ve done that. The upturn in form has been really good for us, the club feels in a real better place now, especially the players, fans, everyone together and it’s got that great feeling back again.”