Jones revels in the pressure that comes with managing Luton

Hatters boss Nathan Jones is confident he equipped to deal with the pressure after enduring his worst run as Luton chief so far.
Hatters boss Nathan JonesHatters boss Nathan Jones
Hatters boss Nathan Jones

A 2-1 defeat at Colchester United on Saturday means Town have now gone five matches without a win, and seen their automatic promotion hopes all but disappear, trailing third placed Portsmouth by eight games with seven games to go.

However, Jones isn’t fazed by the poor sequence of results and believes his squad will only benefit from the experience once they come out the other side, saying: “I eat it, sleep it, drink it, the lot, it’s why I do it, it’s part and parcel of it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“II love my job, I love the challenge of doing it, that’s why you want to be a manager, that’s why you don’t remain an assistant manager or a coach all your life as you want this pressure and it’s good, it’s brilliant.

“At a club like ours, we have that. But I’m well equipped to handle that and we’re going to come through it and when we do come through it, then we’ll be a stronger group and a stronger squad for it, because we’ll have come through stuff.

“Last year, when they were tested they didn’t come through it, so that’s what we have to show, that we are a more solid group, a more stern group and we can handle pressure.

“We’ve just got to keep believing in what we do and this is a test for my players, a test for me as a manager.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"This is my worst spell, we’ve never gone this many games without winning, never gone three games and three draws on the trot.

"We’re not in disastrous form it’s just we haven’t capitalised on the position we’re in. Now we’re still in a good position, we just got to make sure that we have no more slip ups, as it’s now shoot out time really and no-one can slip up."

Despite the run of results, Jones doesn’t feel his side are in too bad a shape ahead of this afternoon’s clash with Blackpool, a side who have now leapfrogged them in the table after a fine run of form themselves.

He added: “It’s not doom and gloom, we had a bad 45 (against Colchester) and they knew that themselves, I told them that, but they already knew it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We’re not a million miles away from where we want to be, it’s just about making sure we keep ticking over, keep doing the right stuff and results will come.

"We don’t often go through a bad run like this and now we’ve got to step up.

"All I can do is study videos, look at my players, see what I think, problem solve, what is going to be the best chance to win a game? And I’m not wrong a hell of a lot of times.

"When I do, I probably beat myself up a little bit too much and my staff say, 'no it’s not you,' so they ground me.

“We’re still in a decent position, it’s just we’ve made it a little bit more difficult for ourselves than we probably should have.”