Luton's players haven't mentioned 7-0 defeat by Brentford ahead of first trip back to the Bees

New signing wants to build on victory at Bournemouth
Kai Naismith in action during his debut for the Hatters on SaturdayKai Naismith in action during his debut for the Hatters on Saturday
Kai Naismith in action during his debut for the Hatters on Saturday

One of Luton Town’s darkest days in the Championship, a 7-0 defeat at Brentford last season, has not been spoken about going into this evening’s first visit back to the Bees since, according to new signing Kal Naismith.

Back in November 2019, the Hatters found themselves 5-0 down by half time at Griffin Park, conceding two more in the second period, but despite still retaining a number of the squad who were present that day, it hasn’t come up in conversation ahead of tonight’s kick-off.

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With Town heading to a different venue for the contest, after the Bees moved to the Brentford Community Stadium in the summer, speaking after the 1-0 win over Bournemouth, Naismith said: “It’s not been mentioned, we’ve spoken about Brentford, what kind of side they are, we’ve looked at them, give them respect, but it’s been about us and how we can build after the result at Bournemouth.

“If we can keep that togetherness, that organisation, that work-rate then we can go there with confidence.

Skipper Sonny Bradley who spoke to the press in the aftermath of that dismal day at Griffin Park, added: “We look at this game (Bournemouth), we look at the positives and the negatives and we see what we can take into the Brentford game.

“It’s another difficult game, let’s not hide away from that, but today (Saturday) was a difficult game and for me, I think we go to Brentford now with confidence.

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“I know if we perform like we did today then there’s no reason why we can’t get a result.”

Town go into the game on the back of a fine win at Bournemouth on Saturday, and although Naismith knows it will be tough task to replicate that result at a side who reached the play-off final last term, losing out to Fulham, he remains optimistic.

He said: "Yes, 100 per cent, we will be high on confidence after the result at the weekend, but Brentford are an outstanding side.

"They were very close last year and have carried it on this year, they've made some great signings, they’re just a really, really good side.

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"They're a really tough side to play against, so we’ll need to go there, every single one of us be on it, I’m sure we’ll be confident to go and get a result."

Prior to Luton's victory at Bournemouth on Saturday, the Hatters had gone six games without a win on the road, while had also seen their seven match unbeaten home run ended by QPR too.

However, with Town's next three away and five from seven on the road in total, Bradley knew it was a big win at the Vitality Stadium.

He added: "We’ve been good at home recently, and I think midweek (QPR defeat) was a bit of a surprise.

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"We’ve been so good at home lately, I think we thought we would turn up and I don’t know what it was.

"We didn’t start the game well, started with four at the back and they came with a formation we didn’t quite expect, so we changed 10 minutes in, for whatever reason, there’s no excuses, we just didn’t perform well on the day.

"We didn’t start well, we got beat and deservedly got beat as we weren’t good enough.

"If you’re not up to speed in the Championship, from the first minute to the last, there’s real good quality in this division and you can get caught out.

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"So we were disappointed with that and then looking at the fixtures, next fixture you see is Bournemouth away and away from home last couple of games hasn't been as good.

"So I think everyone expected it to be a difficult day, which we did as well, let's not get away from that.

"We knew that if we put a performance in which we did towards the back end of last season then we could win the game, and that’s what we’ve done.

"Obviously the red card helps us, but even 11 against 11 I thought we showed we were more than capable of holding our own in the Championship."