Gary Sweet insists Luton Town’s ambition this season remains automatic promotion despite the club’s faltering start to life back in League One.
Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Lincoln City was their fourth in eight games in the division since suffering a second successive relegation in May.
While Sweet has backed manager Matt Bloomfield and his response to the latest setback, he admitted in an interview with the BBC that he was “very uncomfortable” with the performance.
He added: “I was really disappointed, quite emotional a bit at the time, because it just didn’t reflect how we as a club want to play. As a Lutonian, how Luton, as a town, its characteristics, really wants to be represented.
“It was a poor display. I think we have to take that, but I don’t think anybody’s particularly happy with that and that’s Matt [Bloomfield] and the coaches and the players. We absolutely know that that that needs to to change and needs to be better from here in.”
Luton face a crunch clash at home to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, where they’ve lost their last two, with the Yorkshire club sitting second in the division after winning promotion as League Two champions last term. But the chief executive was unequivocal about Town’s targets this term.
“Success for us, as an absolute minimum, is play offs. But our desire is to get automatic promotion and that’s our target,” Sweet said.
Town’s new-look team will have to improve their output at both ends of the pitch, as in two games they’ve gone from having the meanest defence in the division to shipping three goals in each of the last two outings. That has been coupled by not scoring a goal from open play in those games and fashioning the least amount of big chances in League One across the opening two months of the season.
Part of the blame has been attributed by some fans to the continued persistence in playing three centre halves and two wing-backs, which is often perceived as five at the back. Either way, Bloomfield has insisted so far that it is the system that suits the players he has at his disposal.
Sweet acknowledged concerns about the Hatters’ formation, admitting “we have full backs at the club” and adding: “We can play four at the back, no problem. The objective is never to play five at the back. Sometimes it’s pushed into a five at the back. The objective is play three at the back with two high wing-backs.
“That is a very attacking formation. We haven’t got to that position yet where actually two or three games we have shown it and to success. But we need to be more resilient in that formation if we are going to carry on with that.”
With promotion still the clear aim and tactical tweaks on the table, Sweet’s message to fans was one of patience and backing.
He said: “We want to get promoted and the fact remains we’re not going to get promoted unless Kenilworth Road is a fortress. We’ve only ever got promoted when Kenilworth Road is a fortress. So, somehow we need to turn that around, because actually there’s a little bit of nervous edginess to the Kenilworth Road atmosphere and environment at the moment.
“And whether we like it or not, it promotes errors by players, particularly the younger ones, and we’ve seen some of that. That’s probably hurt us in recent weeks, a little bit. I’d really like supporters to give, particularly the younger players, more more time, more chance and give them more support.”
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