Willmott backs under-fire Hatters boss

The Luton manager received a tirade of abuse as he left the field after seeing his side lose further ground in the Blue Square Bet Premier title race.

But Willmott insists that the former Cambridge manager is the best man to lead the club forward.

He said: “We’re all 100 per cent behind the gaffer.

“We’re all working hard in training, we’re all committed to the gaffer and we believe he is the man to take us up the league.

“I’ve worked with him before so I know what he’s capable of.”

There was a tense atmosphere enveloping Kenilworth Road during large parts of the game in midweek, with supporters frustrated by Luton’s failure to kill off their part-time opponents.

Willmott could sense the fans anxiety and understood where they were coming from.

He said: “I think some players do feel it, depending if the fans are on their back, if it’s one particular player, but we can’t let it affect us.

“It doesn’t affect me. I’ve been a fan like them. I’ve paid my money to go and watch my team play and I know how frustrating it is when we don’t win.

“You can feel the frustration in the air, it was just a frustrating night all round and I think you can cap it off with the word frustrating.

“It was just killing me out there, it was a hard game.

“They’ve just got to keep on our side and keep plugging away with us. They’re our 12th man, they’ll take us up the league and take us into League Two.”

Despite Town falling nine points behind leaders Fleetwood Town, who eased to a 3-0 victory over Kettering, Willmott refused to give up hopes of the title, pointing to surprise package Southport, where team-mates Godfrey Poku and Dan Walker are on loan.

He added: “We just need a run of games and we need to put them together quickly.

“This league is a very strange league. Everyone beats everyone.

“Southport, they’re up there and you wouldn’t think at the start of the season they’d be up there.

“They’ve strung so many wins together and you think why can’t we do that?

“We’ve just got to pick up as many points as we can now, home and away. It’s getting to the point where it’s the same old excuses every week.

“We’ve just got to nail down three points. We seem to be scoring one goal and then we can’t keep a clean sheet.

“It’s very frustrating, but we’ve just got to make a run of it and push our way back up the league.”

For all the latest Luton Town FC news, reports, stats, player profiles, live match updates, prediction table and a complete fixture list, visit our Hatters Microsite.