Upbeat Naismith made sure Luton kept their standards high after crushing Rovers loss

Luton defender Kal Naismith used all of his experience during the week following Town’s bitterly disappointing 1-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Kenilworth Road recently to gee up his team-mates ahead of their Good Friday trip to relegation rivals Derby County.

With a number of Hatters followers almost accepting the drop to League One was inevitable after the narrow loss on home soil, the general consensus was that it would be virtually rubber stumped if they came up short at Pride Park. However, the Hatters’ first half display was anything but that of a side who had accepted their fate, as with Naismith recalled to the team, they led through Milli Alli’s close range finish after just 10 minutes.

They then dug in quite brilliantly to hold on for the entire second period, the Rams shovelling ball after ball into the visitors' area, only for Matt Bloomfield’s side to stand strong and claim a precious three points which has reignited belief that Luton could still stay up. One thing was also noticeable on the day was the effect that Town’s substitutes had at Pride Park, Teden Mengi and Reece Burke in particular coming on and getting stuck into the task straight away.

As the game progressed, the pair were joined by Marvelous Nakamba, Lasse Nordas and Tahith Chong, who all put a real shift in for the cause. With Naismith, on loan from Bristol City, one of the elder statesmen of the squad at 34, then asked whether he had used his experience in the build-up to what was a must-win contest, he said: “Yes, I guess I did. I’m always vocal in training and making sure the standards are met every day. You don’t feel sorry for yourself and that’s the thing about football. It’s hard football because some lads don’t play and don’t get on, so they’re disappointed with the result but they’re disappointed they don’t get on.

"Then they need to run after the game, then they need to train hard the next day, and there’s a lot of emotions that goes into it. So for me it was just about controlling the group of players who haven’t been playing, to say we might not be called on from now until the end of the season, we might need to play three games, we might need to play three minutes, but that might be the three minutes that are so important in the club's history where you make a big block, a big header, or you could score a goal, and you can become a hero, it’s that type of season.

"So keep doing everything right in training and then you see the subs that come on, that have not really been involved, out of Chong who started the last two, but not really been involved because the team’s been doing so well and settled. Teden’s come on and was brilliant, Reece Burke came on and was brilliant, big Lasse came on and won a few headers, brilliant.

“That comes from the standards in training, every day, you don’t just come into games and then affect them in a good way if you don’t keep your standards up in training, every day, so maybe that, just trying to drive standards in training, but apart from that, the lads are brilliant professionals, so they drive themselves and it’s been easy.”

Centre half Mark McGuinness also admitted it had been tough to get over such a blow to their survival hopes, but knew they had to do so quickly if they were to have any chance of finishing above the dotted line, adding: “At the time it was difficult, but it’s been and gone. In this league you can’t sit there and sulk, it’s about moving on. Today we showed that resilience to move on from the last game and dig deep and get the three points.

"I think everyone did (know how big a game it was), regardless, every game now is huge for us. Yes it’s just one game, but three points is vital, we knew that, it’s easy saying that now, we’ve got three games left, they're just as important as today, but Monday is going to be even more important and then again Saturday, so some quick turnovers and it will be over in a flash, so really got to work hard.”