Naismith understands boos after admitting he and Luton have not been good enough
Hatters fans voice their disappointment after Argyle loss
Luton skipper Kal Naismith can understand Town’s supporters’ reactions to witnessing their side suffering back-to-back defeats on home soil as he admitted both he and his team-mates can do much better this season.
The 33-year-old came on for the second half on Saturday as the Hatters were trailing 2-1 against Plymouth Argyle, immediately getting back on level terms thanks to Nahki Wells’ penalty. With Argyle seeing skipper Joe Edwards sent off moments later, it gave Luton 40 minutes against 10 men, as the hosts were odds on to net a morale boosting win, only to see calamity strike with 15 minutes left, Jordan Clark’s clearance rebounding in off Bradley Ibrahim as the Pilgrims left with all three points.
It led to an angry response from the home fans after the final whistle, Town’s players and manager Matt Bloomfield jeered off the pitch, as Naismith said: “It’s hard to assess, so, so hard to assess. We’re just disappointed, angry, frustrated, the same as the fans really. I get it, I hear them and I completely understand. They know, they know that we're better, they know we're better players than that. We feel the fans, we feel them at the end booing and we get it. They know what they're watching and we know we're not at the level, so we've spoken about it.
"The goals are obviously disappointing, we have a lot of possession second half, we just don’t create anything like we should be creating. We should be moving the ball better and creating better chances and that's down to me. I’ve been disappointing, I’ve been poor, I take that, so we can be better. To only get two penalties and not so many clear-cut chances, with the players we've got on the pitch, we need to be demanding more from ourselves as it’s not been good enough.”
With the players clearing feeling the frustrations of a third defeat in five matches bubbling over in the aftermath, Naismith insisted they would leave it until training this week to get really into the bones of why they were beaten, as he continued: “It’s extreme disappointment, a lot of emotions after a game when you lose, how you lose, how we’re playing.
"There’s so much emotion involved after the game, we've said, let’s wait until Monday and we’ll hash it out Monday, but we know we need to speak. We know we need to be better, we'll lose games, I've said that before. We've lost games and I've said it’s part of football, but we need to be better, we need to play better.”
Although the result made it two league reverses from three, Naismith thinks there is more than enough in the dressing room to put things right, adding: “I can tell you and I’ll absolutely guarantee it, there’s absolutely no lack of effort. We know we need to do better, but I can absolutely guarantee the fans there is no lack of effort. We've got a great changing room, we drive it every day, there’s not one bit of lack of discipline from anyone.
"There’s not anyone that doesn’t train at 100 percent as that’s what we demand as a group that’s what everyone does. We’re constantly working, we’re working very hard. Everyone’s very disciplined, that’s what we demand. We’ve got a great group of players, leaders in the changing room that demand that every single day, the manager demands, so it’s not that. I know we’ve got that and we can put this right and go on a run. That's what we’ve got to do.”