James Collins has likened Luton’s Championship survival battle to the relegation he suffered in Scotland with Hibernian – but believes the Hatters can beat the drop.
Town find themselves propping up the division after 27 games, four points adrift with the worst goal difference in the league.
Collins has been in a similar situation before, back in 2013 after he’d moved to Scotland, signing for the capital club on a three-year deal for a fee in the region of £210,000.
After a difficult start, not scoring for the first five games, Hibs manager Pat Fenlon resigned in November of that campaign. With former England skipper Terry Butcher in charge they plummeted to the bottom of the Scottish Premiership following 13 games without a win, eventually getting relegated after losing a heartbreaking play-off penalty shootout to Hamilton.
Collin returned to England after just one season, eventually ending up at Luton in 2017 via spells with Shrewsbury and Crawley Town.
Having fired Town to two successive promotions, Luton are now on a run of six defeats in seven Championship games and Collins said: “I’ve been in the situation before in Scotland and I know how tough it is. I know what it takes and what it requires so we need to sit down in the week and really address it because, I know there are 19 games left, but we need to stop that rot quickly and try to move up the table.”
More than a decade of Championship history is against the Hatters however because, since the 2007/08 season, no team has been in Luton’s position at this stage of the season and hauled themselves to safety.
But asked if Town can still stay up, Collins said: “Yeah, of course we can. There’s 19 games left, we’ve played everyone in the league now and we know what we’re coming up against and we just need to maybe have a bit more confidence in ourselves that we are going to stay up.
“I believe it, the lads believe it, the staff believe it and that’s our main aim now for the rest of the season.”
Luton are just four points adrift of safety, though it’s effectively five due to those 58 goals conceded so far giving them a goal difference of -25.
“Of course its doable,” Collins said of the challenge, adding: “You never know, when yo do get that win, you might kick-start your season and that’s what we need. We need to find that win, wherever it may come.
“When that comes, everyone gets a lift. The fans, the players, the staff and then you’re going into the next game a bit more confident. That’s our aim now to try to get that win as quick as possible.”
Collins bagged his ninth of the season in Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham City, when he converted a spot-kick. Prior to that, Town had registered one of their most ineffectual 45 minutes of football for years, with a first half performance that manager Graeme Jones admitted lacked confidence.
Trying to put his finger on why that was, Collins said: “This club’s been used to winning a lot over the last couple of years, but we’ve found ourselves in a situation now where it’s going to be tough.
“We’re playing against good opposition but we need to regroup and see why the confidence is low and we need to changes that because with performances like that in the first half (against Birmingham), we’re not going to get ourselves out of it.”
That last defeat sparked boos for boss Jones after the final whistle from fed up fans.
Collins said: “Obviously it’s as difficult for them as it is for us, we don’t go out there and want to perform badly, we just find ourselves in a situation at the minute.
“We’re doing everything we can as a club and players and staff to try and change that.
“The lads, we train hard, we care, it’s not as if we don’t care, we really do. We really do want to stay in this league this season and that is the aim.
“There’s no point pointing fingers, we need to stick together as a staff and as players and as a club we need to try and overcome it.”
In this article you in all honesty could not argue with anything James has said. Belief is the key followed by goals, clean sheet, and 3 points.