Jordan Clark admits Luton Town’s current struggles feel “even further away” from their Premier League days, describing the club’s current slump as “tough”
The midfielder scored in the Wembley play-off final two years ago to help the Hatters win promotion to the rebranded top flight division for the first time where, though they put up a spirited fight for survival, they were relegated.
Last season in the Championship saw the Town fall through the trap door again, becoming only the fifth side ever to slide from the Premier League to League One in consecutive seasons.
But there was renewed optimism in the summer of a promotion push, with a big summer of recruitment where 14 players arrived by transfer deadline day on September 1.
But a 3-2 home defeat to ten-man Plymouth and then an abject display in a 3-1 beating at Lincoln City on Saturday, have cast a shadow over the Hatters’ season once again, as they sit in 11th place in League One after four wins and four defeats.
And there’s a potentially pivotal test to come this weekend when League Two champions Doncaster Rovers – who are currently second in League One – come to Kenilworth Road. A third home defeat on the spin in the division would further enrage discontent fans, frustrated after two seasons of failure, with the highs of the Premier League now feeling a million miles away.
“It feels feels even further away than that at the minute,” Clark said, adding: “It’s hard at the minute. It’s tough because I’ve not got the answers, to be honest with you. You look back and you think, well, it’s been a quick two years, and, I suppose, even quicker for the fans.”
Supporters aired their feelings at Sincil Bank on Saturday as they booed and jeered the players and manager at the final whistle after two late Lincoln goals cancelled out Clark’s 77th minute leveller.
The 32-year-old said: “I’ll go to the fans windows, win, lose or draw, every week. If you get a load of rubbish, I go up there no matter what because I love this club and I’ll thank them no matter what. I just hope sooner rather than later I’ll be thanking him for a few wins and giving them some smiles for the way home. But at the minute it’s just down to getting up on the training ground and working even harder than what we’re working.”
Part of the preparation might be a return to the basics of football after they were comfortably outfought and outplayed by Lincoln.
Clark told the BBC: “We’re saying all the right things in there [dressing room], that’s that’s the worrying thing as well. Before the game, we’re saying all the right things. We look [like] everyone’s ready for it and then when they get when he [referee] blows the whistle it’s losing headers, losing tackles, losing second balls, not doing the basics,” he said.
“I spoke to one of their [Lincoln’s] players and they do the basics. They work on the basics and they’re top of the league. So it doesn’t matter what league you play in – League One, Premier League, that’ll never change in football. I don’t know if we think we’re better than we are, or what? But something’s not right.
“And it starts off by doing the horrible stuff as best you can and then obviously the football comes second. [It’s] tough at the minute, but we’ll turn it around, I’m sure of it.”
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