The challenges in the Championship shouldn’t come as a shock to Luton Town’s players because they were told all about them, Martin Cranie has revealed.
The defender joined in the summer after helping Sheffield United rise to the Premier League and he joined a Hatters outfit on a similar high, having won two promotions on the bounce to return to the second tier after 12 years away.
Many of the Town squad were part of last term’s record-breaking 28-game unbeaten streak in League One as they claimed the title, but things are very different at present.
Luton are currently on a four-game losing streak that sees them teetering above the drop zone, having lost 3-0 at Reading on Saturday.
Having plied his trade in the Championship for much of his career, talking about his team-mates’ transition to the division, Cranie said: “It was never going to be easy. I don’t think any of the lads thought that, coming into this league.
“Obviously, they’ve been very successful in the last couple of years, but they were made well aware how hard this league is.
“At the minute we’re on a bad run of form but things can change. You can quite easily pick up a couple of wins and move a few places up the table.”
With 10 defeats in their 16 outings, Luton’s campaign has been blighted by mistakes that have been ruthlessly punished their rivals and on Saturday they conceded from a set-piece, an attacking turnover and last man Alan Sheehan getting caught with the ball.
“It’s just difficult to take,” Cranie said, adding: “We’ve conceded a few set-pieces recently and I think the lads last year didn’t really concede set-piece at all. That’s the disappointing thing. I think we’re conceding goals that are very avoidable at the minute and they’re putting us out of games.
“We’ve got a lot to work on in the next few weeks. “Things happen in football and people are going to make mistakes, but it just seems at the minute we’re making far more than all the other teams, so that’s something that we need to eradicate straight away if we’re going to get positive results.”
