Mackail-Smith not reading too much into bookies making David James favourite for Luton job

The 45-year-old is the clear 4/11 favourite with league sponsors Sky Bet to take the role and was at Kenilworth Road for yesterday’s awful 2-0 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers, watching from the directors box.

On James, whose only previous managerial experience came with Indian Premier League club Kerala Blasters FC, potentially taking over, Mackail-Smith said: “He’s been in and out of the club, does a few sessions here and there, puts his input in, but I don’t know the situation.

“I don’t think we take it too seriously because odds are always changing and people are coming into the fray and then the manager may not be the manager you think is coming in.

“So I don’t think we see it as anyone at the moment. We see it as Andy Awford at the moment, he’s taking training, he’s the one picking the team, so we’re performing for him, doing the best we can for him.

“That will take care of itself. The board will decide who’s the man to come in next, me as a player I just get on with my job the best I can, try and give everything I’ve got and do the best I can in the game and whatever happens on that side of it will happen.”

The former Brighton and Peterborough forward is hoping that whoever takes the role will provide the club with a much-needed boost as they continue to languish in mid-table.

He said: “Hopefully it’s a kick up the behind, hopefully the boys realise a new manager is coming in and they need to up their game and to be in the new manager’s team because if he is here and he is watching, then performances like that, he might have to try and do some business in January.”

Whether new players are the answer to try and arrest Hatters’ worrying slump this year, Mackail-Smith continued: “The manager might see fit he needs some new players to bring in, needs some fresh blood and to get rid of some players, that’s his job.

“Watching these games he’ll see who he needs in the positions and who he needs to let go.

“It’s down to the individual players to show what they can do because he’ll come in and it can change very very quickly.”

Meanwhile, Mackail-Smith, who was Town’s stand out signing of the summer after leaving Brighton, felt he had let down previous manager John Still, who was dismissed last week.

He added: “It’s disappointing, I had a chat with him over the summer, he told me what the club was like and how he wanted to play.

“Maybe that didn’t quite work and I haven’t been at my best either so I shoulder part of the blame to why he’s gone.

“I came in, he put his faith in me, backed me and I haven’t produced enough and obviously he’s lost his job.

“So I’m disappointed in myself with that and other players as well as I think they feel they’ve let him down a bit because he’s taken them, results didn’t work and he had to go.”