Naismith 'desperate' to beat his Chelsea friends after supporting Blues during Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool

Although Luton defender Kal Naismith had wanted to see the Chelsea players celebrating a Carabao Cup final success on Sunday afternoon, he is desperate to inflict another losing feeling on them at Kenilworth Road this evening.

The 30-year-old was part of the 85,512 crowd inside Wembley Stadium at the weekend as the Blues took on Liverpool, eventually beaten 11-10 on penalties after Kepa Arrizabalaga missed the 22nd kick taken, blasting his effort high over the bar.

Naismith isn’t a Chelsea fan as such, but with close allegiances to a few in the Blues squad, he was rooting for them, saying: “I went to the game and it was a brilliant day.

“I know a couple of the boys at Chelsea and I went to support them, so I was a bit gutted they never got the winner.

“I would have liked to see them on the pitch celebrating after as I was with the families and I saw them disappointed but that is the heartache of cup finals.

“It was a good game, an exciting game for a 0-0, just sad they never got the win.

“Obviously I’ll be desperate to beat them on Wednesday night because it’s different when we play them but I was supporting friends so I was hoping they’d get the win.

“It was good to see the players up close, Liverpool as well, top players performing live.”

On just who he knows within the Chelsea camp, Naismith continued: “Me and Marcus (Bettinelli, goalkeeper) lived together.

“He came to Accrington on loan when we were 20, 21, we lived together for a year and he’s been one of my best mates ever since.

“Reece (James, full back), he was at Wigan with me recently and the other one was Anthony Barry who was my coach at Wigan who I still keep in close contact with.

“What a guy, so I’m also looking forward to seeing them on Wednesday.”

Potentially coming up against James, who at 22 is one of the brightest youngest prospects, not just at Stamford Bridge, but in English football, with 10 caps to his name already, is something Naismith has done previously.

In fact just last season, the Scot was given his full Town debut in the FA Cup fourth round tie at Chelsea, as Luton were knocked out 3-1 on the day.

On facing the ex-Latic, Naismith continued: “I played against Reece last year, it was my first start for Luton and I played left wing-back and he was right-back so we matched up against each other.

“I knew I was bang in trouble because left wing-back isn’t my best position and I knew who I was playing against so it was a tough game!

“If I play it will be good to play in a position I feel I can really impose myself on the game and it’ll be good to play against him if he does play.”

Although Luton far from disgraced themselves last term, they were up against it early on, conceding twice to now Roma striker Tammy Abraham’s double inside 18 minutes.

Naismith knows that can’t happen again if they are to produce one of the biggest cup shocks in their history, saying: “Conceding early in any game is tough, even in the Championship we never want to concede first.

“We will be looking to impose ourselves in the first 15-20 minutes, try to get a fast start as we always do, let them know they are in for a game and go and enjoy it.

“To enjoy a game it’s hard to say that, you need to be playing well, giving 100 per cent so it’s not about going out there with a smile on your face, we want to impose ourselves on the game and then we will enjoy it if we do that.

“It’s a completely different game but we’ve played against top opposition before and we know we can do well so I guess we will take that.”

The current captain, with Sonny Bradley still out injured, believes Town are in a better place than they were going into last year's clash too, adding: "For spells in that game we really performed well.

"We know we can go up against the best, we obviously managed to score but this is a completely different game because we are a completely different team this year.

"We have a different style I feel from last year as well, we’re obviously at fire at the minute and it’s at our place which changes the dynamic of the game massively.

"It’s a completely different game but we’ve played against top opposition before and we know we can do well so I guess we will take that."