Luton chief wants to settle down some of the 'panic merchants' ahead of home clash with Sheffield Wednesday

Town boss calls for calm before his side host the Owls
Ryan Tunnicliffe gets stuck in against his former side Millwall on Tuesday nightRyan Tunnicliffe gets stuck in against his former side Millwall on Tuesday night
Ryan Tunnicliffe gets stuck in against his former side Millwall on Tuesday night

Luton boss Nathan Jones is hoping to settle down some of the ‘panic merchants’ with a victory over Sheffield Wednesday this weekend.

Since the turn of the year the Hatters have won just two of their nine league games, only taking a point from their last three outings, which has seen them drop to 17th in the table.

They are now nine points ahead of third bottom Rotherham United, while Saturday's opponents are a further point back with 15 matches of the season to go.

Having not tasted success at Kenilworth Road since December 29, Luton now on a four game winless run following a last-gasp equaliser for Millwall on Tuesday night, some fans have expressed their concerns that Town will sucked into another relegation fight this term.

However, Jones called for cool heads, saying: "I would just like to settle everyone down as there seems to be a couple on the panic boat, so let's just settle everyone down as there’s a couple of panic merchants about.

“We need wins, we want to win and climb the league, we don’t want to be looking down, we want to be looking up.

“We’ve had that mentality all year, but it’s time for everyone to just calm a little bit and get behind stuff.

“There’s been a lot of negativity over the other night. I haven’t seen many of the positives and I’m not just talking about supporters by the way.

“Let’s settle down and let’s go into the game and be ready, physically and mentally, and then let’s hope we get a win.”

On how he coped following the gut-wrenching disappointing of losing two points in the final moments of stoppage time in midweek, Jones continued: "There’s a lot of emotions after the game but yesterday I dedicated myself to Sheffield Wednesday.

“I was at Sheffield Wednesday v Brentford, I watched Sheffield Wednesday/Preston and Sheffield Wednesday/Birmingham the other day.

“Then, this morning, I’ve come in with a clear head and watched our game.

"I’m really pleased, there were so many positives from it.

“Yes, we could be better, because there were a few final balls and if we had (made them) it would’ve given us a few more opportunities.

“For us to come up against Millwall and do what we did, I’m pleased with the level of control we had.

“We just have to show a little more quality, a little more zest and a bit more nous in the 96th minute."

Meanwhile, having viewed the game in its entirety once more, Jones was still of the opinion that his side had done enough to win the game, adding: "I thought we were brave, I thought we had a really good control of the game.

"The only really threat was maybe counter attack and then late on you know what’s going to happen when you come up against Millwall.

"If (Matt) Smith comes on there’s only one way they’re going, so I thought we handled that really, really well.

"It was a really encouraging performance, we moved the ball, controlled the ball, had enough chances to have won the game.

"Jordan Clark had a real good chance first half, Elijah (Adebayo) has a great opportunity second half to seal the game and we created enough to have won the game.

"But we didn’t and that’s the issue, otherwise it would have been a fantastic, fantastic evening.”