Walsh is boosted after witnessing Kenilworth Road crowd's response to Blades loss

​Hatters midfielder Liam Walsh believes that both he and his team-mates were given a real boost in their efforts to stay up after the reaction from the Kenilworth Road crowd to Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United on Saturday.

Although Town were beaten for the eighth time in 10 games, remaining bottom of the pile and two points from safety, there was so much more to like about their display against a side who went top of the tree following their success. Bar the way in which Anel Ahmedhodzic finished with 11 minutes remaining, there was no telling who was the team at the summit and who was the outfit at the bottom during the contest, as Luton deserved far more on the day, Elijah Adebayo missing two glorious chances, Thelo Aasgaard curling against the bar, with Carlton Morris and Izzy Jones both denied by visiting keeper Michael Cooper.

It meant that although the Hatters faithful had watched a third loss in four, and their fourth game in a row where they hadn’t been able to celebrate a goal, a new and unwanted club record set, at the final whistle there was none of the vitriol that had been aimed at the squad following the 1-0 reverse to Millwall in their last match in Bedfordshire.

Instead they were clapped off and given what was a decent ovation for a side sitting at the foot of the table and without a victory for almost two months, as an enthused Walsh said: “Everything’s for the fans and we knew that past performances weren’t good enough. Me personally seeing them travel up to Sunderland on Wednesday night, it’s heartbreaking for them to see the 2-0 loss the way we did. We just want to repay the fans with performances and seeing them clap us off at the end even though we’ve lost again is a big boost for us.”

What also gave Walsh some real optimism for the final 14 matches of the campaign was the manner of the performance that his side produced on the afternoon, as they went toe-to-toe with the high-flying Blades and should really have come away with all three points. He knows it’s a display that must be replicated against Plymouth Argyle this evening and then for the rest of the campaign, continuing: “That's the harsh reality. We've put in our best performance in a while and we've come away with no points again.

"I think where we are in the table, that's given us a big boost though. To go and perform like that, that's the lowest level of performance we’ve got to give for the rest of the season and if we put on performances like that, the points will come. You can feel it yourself on the pitch, it felt like everyone was doing their jobs down to a man.

"We were defending solidly, winning first contacts, winning second balls. Even the talk at half time, there wasn’t much to talk about, we just knew we had to follow that first half up which we did. It was just a little 30 second moment and it showed what teams at the top of the league can do to you. We’ve come away unlucky but we know that that’s our level now.”

Walsh was one of seven changes made on the day by boss Matt Bloomfield, who also included three of his transfer window additions in the starting line-up, Izzy Jones, Thelo Aasgaard and Kal Naismith, with Josh Bowler, Lasse Nordas and Millenic Alli on the bench. The midfielder knows that the extra competition for places should lead to some improved displays, adding: “Looking at the Sunderland result and the past performances, the past month or so, we knew where we’re at with the performances.

"If we can just build on that, I don’t see why we can’t pick up some points. Lots of those players will come on at some point or start games, freshen it up a little bit. Thelo has probably played the most out of them and he's been brilliant again, gives us that little spark in the middle, but I think all the lads are expecting big performances from now until the end of the season, it's what we deserve from each other.”