Jordan Clark admits Luton should not be in a Championship relegation fight with the quality in their squad, but believes defeats have snowballed in an opposite way to victories in their Premier League promotion campaign.
The midfielder scored the winner against Portsmouth on Saturday as the Hatters ended a 12-game winless run that had left them effectively six points from safety at the foot of the table, facing a second successive relegation.
A first win of 2025 lifted them out of last place but still with work to do to steer themselves to safety. And that task increased last night when Hull City, who were just above the drop zone, beat Plymouth 2-0 to pull away and leave Luton needing two wins to overtake Cardiff City.
The two clubs will face-off in the Welsh capital on Tuesday, but Town will travel to Burnley first at the weekend, though the Bluebirds did ended the Clarets’ 12 straight clean sheets, making Luton’s task slightly less daunting.
Asked why the Hatters have struggled so much this season, Clark said: “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it a lot throughout the year. I can’t believe how we’ve been in this position, but obviously we are. We’ve got to accept it now.
“For the quality we’ve got in the squad and the dressing room, we know we shouldn’t be where we are. But it’s only us now who can get ourselves out of it.”
He added: “We knew we’ve got so much quality in there [dressing room]. We’re not daft. We’ve not been good enough this year, we know that.
“We’re in the worst position we could possibly be in. We just knew we just needed that one win because you get one win in this league and it just gives everyone such a boost.
“When you’re on a losing run, it’s so hard to get out of there. It’s so hard to get out of the run. It just sort of snowballs.
“You saw the year we got promoted, some games we will probably played rubbish and we just nicked a 1-0 win. When you’re on the winning run it just snowballs and you just turn out next week and you just think, ‘we’re going to win here’.
“This year’s been tough because it’s been the opposite. And it’s tough when you go 1-0 down it’s like, ‘oh no, here we go again’.
“Like the Watford game. Obviously, the first 10 minutes we started really well and then next thing you know we gave a penalty away.
“But the manager’s always been positive. He’s given us a bollocking when we needed a bollocking. That’s good, sometimes we need that.
“But he’s always been so positive and having that belief in us and going out there week in, week out knowing we need to compete and need to keep pushing, like we always do and it’s just working on things day in, day out. It’s just nice to get a three points and obviously pay off a little bit.”
Clark returned from two games out with an ankle injury and admitted that he was playing through pain, which will need pain-killing medication until the end of the season, but his return came as midfielders Marvelous Nakamba and Shandon Baptiste were both ruled out for six weeks with the same calf injury.
“Injuries have always been tough,” said Clark, adding: “We always seem to be getting in a good place and then we get injuries and stuff, which obviously every team gets, so it’s no excuse, but we’ve just got to try and get as many players fit and available as we can.
“Having that competition for places is always vital because it brings training on throughout the week and brings the training quality up. Obviously, the more we can get available for games, it’s going to benefit us more. Hopefully now until the season we can get more players back, which will ensure it gives us a big boost.”
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