Shea desperate for Luton's 12th man to be allowed back in soon

Luton keeper James Shea is another player who declared himself not a fan of playing in front of empty stadiums

The Town stopper had his first proper experience of such a situation at the weekend, when he took his place between the posts for the 3-1 win over Norwich City in the Carabao Cup.

With no supporters allowed to attend games due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, when asked for his thoughts about the behind closed doors match, Shea said: “It’s weird, very, very weird, my first proper game with it all.

"I came out and you run over to the big stand at the back and it’s empty, it's not got the people behind me, I don’t like it.

“I like the banter from the away fans if I’m honest, I enjoy all that kind of stuff.

"It gives you that little bit of oomph to think ‘I don’t want you to score,’ hopefully it won’t be too much longer before they’re back in.

“There’s no atmosphere, you have to create your own atmosphere, especially at the Kenny.

"You know what it’s like, on a night game, it’s like a 12th man and when you’ve not got that, it’s a big loss to us really.”

With no fans allowed back in until October at the earliest, although that could change with Prime Minister Boris Johnson reviewing his plans, it means that Luton supporters will miss out on a trip to Vicarage Road in a fortnight to take on fierce rivals Watford for the first time since the CHECK season.

There is hope that supporters will be in attendance when Town welcome the Hornets in April though as Shea continued: “It is a real shame that as they’ve been waiting years and years for it.

"At least we get the home one, so fingers crossed we can have a full house at the Kenny then and they could be a 12th man.

"It would be nice if it was a Tuesday night game too.”

Meanwhile, although no fans were present on Saturday, the ones watching on live streams would have seen Town impress against a Canaries side who had just come down from the Premier League.

Although Daniel Farke's squad was severely hampered by international call-ups, suspension and injury, they still had the likes of recent signing Jordan Hugill, rumoured to have cost £2.5m from West Ham and summer signing Kieran Dowell from Everton.

The Hatters had to weather some spells of pressure over the 90 minutes but did so and came out on to thanks to James Collins’ late hat-trick.

She said: “I thought we kept him (Hugill) quiet all game to be honest, I thought our back four did really well.

“He’s a handful, he was against QPR last year, but I thought the back four were class against him.

“I can’t remember them really ripping us open with their play, all their chances were from long range shots and the goal which I thought was a little bit unlucky.

"He’s tried to play it in, it’s ricocheted straight to him and he’s hit it early and connected sweetly with it.

“You’ve got to expect that, teams to have their spells.

"They've just come down from the Premier League, I know they had 15 odd players away, but you look at that team on paper, it’s a good strong team out and it’s a test whoever you play.

"They were always going to have spells of the game and you’ve just got to get through those spells, hopefully don’t concede and when you’re on top, you score and then take advantage of it.”

Shea himself made some top saves during the contest, but there was one he was very happy to keep out from Lukas Rupp which almost fooled him.

Coming through a crowd of players, it looked like it had got a nick from a Town defender as Shea had to stick out a leg to prevent it flying in and then grab the loose ball, as he said: "It didn't actually take a deflection, the ball just moved all over the place.

"I don't know what it is, it’s the same ball, it just feels a little bit lighter this year than last year, a newer ball.

"It’s a typical goalkeeper's saying I must admit, but it can make you look silly, so I was very relieved.”

When discussing Shea's overall performance, boss Nathan Jones added: "I thought he was excellent, his saves were shots from distance, so we’d expect him to make those, but he was part and parcel of an excellent defensive performance.

"This was our fifth pre-season game against the highest ranked opposition in the league once again, so I’m very pleased and James Shea was part of an excellent defensive performance all-round.”