Luton defender insists one win is desperately needed to build momentum for the Hatters

Town defender Kal Naismith believes the Hatters just need one win to get their battle to stay in the Championship up and running.

With 15 games of the campaign to go, Luton find themselves bottom of the pile, two points from safety, with a number of supporters already fearing the worst with their team having not won since December 20 when beating Derby County, losing seven out of nine.

Naismith believes if they can get one precious victory on the board it will lead to more, saying: “We know what we need to get, but I think that first result is so important. Let’s get that first win, momentum is the biggest thing in football. You see them (Sunderland), they’re full of momentum, you can see the confidence in them and that just comes from results, that comes from picking up any sort of win. A scrappy win, a one-nil, any sort of result and then you build from there and it will snowball because we’re doing the right things.

"The manager has been great, everybody’s still positive in the building, so just need that result to get the momentum going. It’s a fight, it’s a tough league and we are where we are, but we’ve got lots to play for and lots of games. We know where we are, that’s the important thing. It’s easy to just say we’ll be fine, we’ll be fine, but I think as a group we know where we are and it’s time to go. We were working hard, we were trying our best up against a good side (in Sunderland) and it’s disappointing, but we've got to dust ourselves down and we go again at the weekend.”

Although he has just come back to Kenilworth Road, then having a look around the squad, Naismith feels there is more than enough to achieve their goal of remaining in the second tier, continuing: “Yes, it’s tough. You can overthink and you can look down every avenue, but we know we can be better. We’re in there, we’re looking at each other, we know the quality we’ve got in the changing room, but we all need to look at each other and step it up.

"We’re going to do that in the coming games, we’re going to learn from tonight and then we’re going to keep working hard in training and try and bounce back and get a result. It wasn’t going to be easy but we just went to Sheffield Wednesday, a team that’s flying high, a lot of momentum, going well, went 1-0 up, ended up with a point. So we were coming here with a bit of confidence, but on the night, that’s football, they beat us and we shake hands, we learn from the game and we move on to a massive one in front of our fans on Saturday.”

Speaking afterwards, Naismith appeared to relish the challenge he has walked into, determined to prove anyone who doubted Luton’s ability to stay up wrong, as boss Matt Bloomfield added: “I like it when people have got a point to prove, it brings an extra edge, brings an extra energy and intensity. He’s got that personality about him that even if he didn’t have a point to prove, I think he’d still carry himself in the same way, but there’s nothing wrong with that, I think it’s good for all of us to have that point to prove to the world.”