Keeper Kaminski urges Luton to never lose the fight that the Hatters stand for

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Belgian international discusses his side’s 2-2 draw with Oxford

Goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski has urged his team-mates to never lose the fight that the Hatters have been known for as they bid to turn around their disappointing start to the Championship campaign.

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Town were meant to up there with the front-runners in the second tier after a season in the Premier League in which they won a number of new supporters for the manner in which they attacked some of the best teams in English football, going close to beating sides like Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa on home soil.

However, they have been unable to take those kinds of performances into the Championship, garnering a mere eight points from their opening eight games, suffering four losses. It looked like that would have just been seven points on Tuesday night, and a fifth defeat already, as although they led 2-0 against Oxford United, they were then hauled back to 2-2 early in the second period, seeing Liam Walsh sent off just 36 seconds after coming off the bench leaving Town to play the last 15 minutes with 10 men.

Thomas Kaminski dishes out some orders to his defence during Luton's 2-2 draw with Oxford on Tuesday night - pic: David Horn / PRiME Media ImagesThomas Kaminski dishes out some orders to his defence during Luton's 2-2 draw with Oxford on Tuesday night - pic: David Horn / PRiME Media Images
Thomas Kaminski dishes out some orders to his defence during Luton's 2-2 draw with Oxford on Tuesday night - pic: David Horn / PRiME Media Images

Despite that, and the dominance that the U’s had enjoyed beforehand, Luton then appeared the stronger side in the final stages, almost snatching three points when Teden Mengi’s header was parried away from Elijah Adebayo by visiting stopper Jamie Cumming. The spirit shown by the hosts was a characteristic that Kaminski believes must remain as he told the BBC: “That’s something that we can never lose, that fight and I think that’s what Luton stands for.

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"Fight, aggressiveness and front foot and that’s what we have to keep on doing. I’m sure that will give us results, but we have to find the right balance in attacking but also in running back. We had a couple of half chances, their goalie makes a good save in the last couple of minutes and then you have to be a bit more solid and a bit more careful, with 10 men you start to look better and we have to find the right balance.

“It was a very crazy game. We started quite well, we go 2-0 up, they get a goal back and that gives us a knock on the head really just before half time. They get the 2-2 and then we struggled. They had a bit of momentum, we got down to 10 men and then you know it’s hang on and try to finish the game with a point.”

With boss Rob Edwards and midfielder Jordan Clark both admitting that the belief is low within the squad at the moment, Kaminski agreed with the duo, as he discussed the different mentality that has come with being back in the Championship and only now winning three games from 27 in all competitions, continuing: “I think it’s a confidence thing. We have to hang on again and it’s playing a bit in your mind.

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"The thing is last season it was different and now we are one of the favourites lets say. We have to make the results, so it’s totally different. It’s difficult for us as we have some young players as well, and we have to keep learning from that. They had the momentum and we have to show that we have to be brave and still do the basics right.”

Once Tyler Goodrham pulled one back for the U’s, it was quite clear to anyone at Kenilworth Road that it was only a matter of time before the visitors scored again, and so it proved, Ruben Rodrigues tucking home substitute Kyle Edwards’ low cross. They should have won it too, Kaminski making a superb double save from Mark Harris and Goodrham, as the Belgian knows his side have to react better to conceding in future matches.

He added: “They are doing well in the league, you can see they have some quality players in the team and we are searching a little bit how to play and how to make it click and how to make it work. You can see sometimes we take too long. For example when they got the goal back it takes too long to get back into the electric shape and being pressing and being aggressive. It takes a little bit too long and we have to learn from that.”

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