Hatters midfielder calls on Luton fans to help 'sink' Town's opponents

Hatters midfielder Liam Walsh has urged Town’s supporters to replicate the kind of atmosphere they created during last weekend’s 2-1 victory against Stevenage when taking on promotion-chasing Lincoln City at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

Town’s triumph over their play-off rivals seven days ago, means they won a third game in a row on home soil for the first time since the back end of the 2022-23 campaign, as they were helped by their supporters rallying against the injustice from some dubious decisions from the officials. A clear handball was missed by referee Simon Mather in the build-up to Lewis Freestone’s header early in the second half, but buoyed by the poor decisions, the Hatters faithful cranked up the volume, as their players certainly responded, Jordan Clark swiftly levelling and then Gideon Kodua winning it.

It’s something that Walsh wants to hear on a regular basis during the second half of the campaign, as he said: “We said it at the start of the season we want teams to come here and feel like they’re not going to win, they’ll try their hardest to get a point at best. When our fans are behind us and we're pushing on for goals you can hear them and I feel it just sinks the opposition down a little bit. They try and slow the game, but as soon as we got our first goal then we're on top, everyone’s behind us, we feel our confidence is through the roof.

“It was a massive win for us too. They’re doing well in the league and we feel like we've been doing well, but we haven’t been getting our results. Sometimes it gets like that when you’re playing well and you’re not getting the results. In this league it’s just about winning, I feel like we didn't play our best stuff but ended up coming away with a massive win.

"We'll probably look at it as when we played Reading away we were better as a footballing side and didn’t come away with the win, but we know what Stevenage bring to the game. We said that we've got to win our first and second balls, got to win all the little scrappy bits on the floor and then we can play our stuff. It wasn't a game to try and get on the ball, but I think all over the park we won the second balls, won stuff that maybe favoured them and that’s what got us the win.”

Meanwhile, for Walsh, now 28, he was playing his 51st game for the Hatters, as having completed his half century of appearances during the 1-0 defeat at Exeter on New Year’s Day, it was the first time he has reached such a milestone at one club in his career. On the milestone, he added: “I’m not one to look at stuff like that, but to find out I played 50 games for Luton, and getting a win, makes it even better. I’ve loved every minute since I’ve been at the club and hopefully I can go on to play lots more.”