Alex Lawless admitted confidence is “low” after Luton’s 3-1 Vertu Trophy dispiriting defeat at lower league Cambridge United last night — but called on players to “fight for everything” in a bid to arrest concerning form and results.
The interim coach was installed temporarily on Monday when Matt Bloomfield was sacked following Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at League One leaders Stevenage.
At the Abbey Stadium against League Two United, Lawless saw the Hatters take an early lead through Mads Andersen against a United side who made ten changes, but they were pegged back by a stunning Glenn McConnell strike. Defensive errors then saw Elias Kachunga expose woeful defending to bag a brace that extended the Hatters’ poor run to four defeats in six and further plunged the club into crisis.
Lawless, who stepped up from his under-21s coaching role to lead the first team while a new the new manager search is under way, said the challenge now is about resilience and unity.
“We’ve had some honest conversations with the lads,” the 40-year-old said, adding: “You’ve got to fight. You’ve got to fight for everything. You’ve got to fight against negativity that’s going to come your way — deserved or not, it doesn’t matter. You’ve got to fight it off.”
Drawing on his own experiences of low ebbs as a Luton player in the non-league days and his experience of turning things around, the Welshman said: “You have to do it personally, straight away as a player. I felt like there’s something I can talk about. That was something that I felt like I had success at certain moments, especially here. I feel like I got that understanding of that.
“But it’s a team sport, and at the end of the day you’ve got to do it individually for it then to come together. But together is the most important thing. That’s the critical part of this, that everyone has to stays as a group and work hard as a team to fight for those better moments.”
Town faded badly after the break and Lawless said: “The second half probably epitomises a little bit where we’re at at the minute. After some encouraging parts in the first half, that was disappointing.
“The confidence is low, we know that. I really feel like it was an opportunity today, against a team who are a league below us, to really lay a glove on it and get that win that would spark a bit of confidence and then go from there. But it’s not to be tonight — and it needs to happen soon.”
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