Still happy with Hatters’ progress as he looks to close play-off gap

Pleased Hatters boss John Still is happy with the way things are progressing since he’s taken charge at Kenilworth Road and continues to refuse to rule out a play-off push, writes Mark Wood.
L13-348 LTFC v Stockport at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Luton won 1:0
Mark Wood
JR 12
18.3.13
goal celebration McNulty  Martin and TaiwoL13-348 LTFC v Stockport at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Luton won 1:0
Mark Wood
JR 12
18.3.13
goal celebration McNulty  Martin and Taiwo
L13-348 LTFC v Stockport at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Luton won 1:0 Mark Wood JR 12 18.3.13 goal celebration McNulty Martin and Taiwo

Having seen them lose 2-0 at Braintree Town they have since lost 2-1 at home to lowly Hyde, drawn at home to Hereford and at Wrexham and beaten Stockport County home and away.

He said: “I said to the players on Tuesday. Although I’ve not seen everything I think I’ve seen enough and I think we might have done enough for them to understand the philosophy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Not necessarily understand the job all the time, but understand the philosophy of what we’re trying to do. And if we can just hold on to that a little bit that might enable us to get through the next couple of games positively and come out the other side saying ‘well three games ago it looked like this, now it looks like that’.

“Is that a better situation for us to say, ‘hold on a minute are we as far away from it as we might have thought?’ I don’t know, that will unveil itself over the next couple of games.”

And while keen not to make any kneejerk reactions to Tuesday night’s 1-0 home win over the Hatters, he is happy with the direction Luton are taking.

“I’ve never been one for looking at one-off games, because at any given time I think they can be a bit false,” Still continued.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I think just looking back over the last couple of weeks. Everton I think lost 3-0 in the cup to Wigan and everyone was talking about David Moyes has he gone as far as he can with Everton?

“And then they bounce back and beat Man City and go hang on, it’s fantastic. So I think you have to look at groups of games and I’ll be honest if I look at five games I’ve been reasonably pleased if I’m honest.

“I thought we played OK the other night, not great, but well enough to win more than one goal.

“I thought we played well away at Stockport and deserved to win by more goals.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I thought the draw that we had here, the Hereford game, I thought we were good enough to win that.

“I thought we were very, very good at Wrexham, I thought that was a good strong, solid performance, and we were very, very poor against Hyde.”

But he does want Luton to learn to see a game out more effectively.

Still said: “I’ve been quite comfortable with what we’ve done. We have to do two more things.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We have to score more goals and put games to bed a bit earlier, in terms of we were 1-0 up the other night and we should be able to close the game out a little bit and not the give the other team opportunities to score in the last five-10 minutes of the game.

“And I thought in the last five minutes of the game we were still looking to win 2-0 and throw caution to the wind a bit, as apposed to going we are 1-0 up, we are well in control, let’s play winning football.

“We didn’t and that’s not a criticism, it almost looked to me like they didn’t know how to do it. It’s part of what I’ve got to hopefully teach them to do.”

One player that did keep the ball well in the closing stages against Stockport was debutant midfielder Solomon Taiwo who played under Still at former club Dagenham & Redbridge.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Still added: “He’s played for me before so he knows the job. These people really here are still learning the job. He’s come in and he knows the job because he’s played for me before.

“He came in and did a bit better than I thought. He’s still behind on his fitness. He’s come in, he knows the job and he done the job. But gradually those other players will pick it up.

“If it was easy we’d all do it, I’d do it myself. It isn’t easy and if you are used to doing things a certain way, which isn’t the wrong way it’s just someone else’s way, it takes time.

“One of the problems that we’ve got is fitting everything in around playing Tuesday and Saturday. Our training days Monday and Thursday really.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“You can’t do too much on a Monday if you’re playing Tuesday because you need to prepare for the game.

“On a Thursday that’s probably the only day you can do what I call constructive work, because Friday you are preparing for the game on the Saturday.

“That to be fair to players isn’t easy. But gradually.”