Luton skipper Naismith apologises to Town's supporters after dismal home defeat

Hatters captain Kal Naismith was eager to apologise to the club’s supporters after Town were hammered 5-0 on home soil by Birmingham City yesterday.

Going into the game there was almost an air of expectancy amongst the Kenilworth Road faithful following a 1-0 win at Barnsley on Tuesday night, plus their 3-0 victory over Peterborough in the opening home game of the campaign earlier this month.

However, that was soon punctured, as Marc Roberts put the Blues ahead on seven minutes, the optimism quickly unravelling further when Scott Hogan made it 2-0 inside half an hour.

The striker then scored again after the break, with goals from Gary Gardner and Chuks Aneke handing Town their biggest home defeat since July 2020.

Facing the press afterwards, Naismith said: “It wasn't good enough and we need to hold our hands up, no-one was good enough.

"We need to apologise to the fans really as even two-nil down coming off the noise from them was unbelievable.

"We said at half time, the fans are still right behind us, it’s not been good enough, go out and give them something to cheer about.

"We started well, went down to three, it’s ended up five, it’s not acceptable.

"The fans don’t deserve that, so I feel we owe them one next week (against Sheffield United).”

Despite their side's dismal showing, the Luton fans stayed behind their team until the final whistle, with a muted response naturally greeting the players, but very little, if any booing directed towards the squad.

Naismith continued: “There wasn’t and if there was then it would have been deserved.

"But we can only apologise and we owe them one next week.”

The skipper conceded it would now be a ‘horrible’ weekend for both himself and the rest of the squad as they try to put the result behind them, adding: “That’s the beauty of football, when you’re down there you can always bounce back.

"That’s the good thing, you can never stay down there, can never lie down and sulk or cry about it.

"The boys will be gutted tonight, gutted tomorrow, it will be a horrible weekend, it’s just the worst feeling.

"But Monday we’ll come back into training, pick ourselves up and let’s go again.”