Martin Cranie doesn’t believe a sports psychologist will be forced upon Luton players to help them out of their current slump.
Manager Graeme Jones suggested it could be an option after he saw his side slip to a fourth Championship defeat on the spin on Saturday, with a 3-0 capitulation at Reading.
Cranie, who was handed the captain’s armband at the weekend after Sonny Bradley was dropped, said: “Different clubs have gone down that route and they’ve used it as if lads want to speak to them. It’s not something that’s forced upon people. I don’t think it works like that.
“I think it’s a private matter. If the lads want to speak to someone like that, if they feel they need to, that’s the route you do down.”
Asked if he considered Town’s current poor run to be a issue with players’ mentalities, the defender said: “It’s mental, concentration, a bit of everything. When you’re at the bottom, it just seems like your luck’s down and things like that seem to happen a bit more often.
“You can put it down to mental, concentration, but it’s something we need to stamp out very quickly.”
The defeat left Luton still teetering just above the division’s drop-zone and with the international break in which to work on the training pitch, Cranie added: “When you get into a run of four defeats on the bounce it’s tough to come back from, but it’s going to be a test of character now for the lads. There’s no point in coming here with our heads down, we’ve got to get on with it.
“We’ve got 30 games left in this league. It’s not done by a long way, so we need to go back to training, work hard and get ready for the next game.
“We can’t dwell on what’s happened. We can only look forward to what’s coming. It’s Leeds so it doesn’t get any easier. It’s going to be a big game and we’ve got to be ready mentally and physically. That’s all we can do in the next couple of weeks, get things right.”
