Nugent wants Hatters to enjoy some home comforts

The 46-year-old, who joined Luton’s backroom staff last month, experienced being on the receiving end of the Town faithful during his playing days at Leyton Orient and Cardiff City.

This season, Hatters have won just three games in front of their own fans, with five draws and a hefty seven defeats so far.

Nugent said: “I played against them a few times and it was always a tough place to come, you knew that as an away team going to Kenilworth Road.

“So hopefully we can start to instil that into the team going forward.”

With Hartlepool heading to Bedfordshire today, Nugent was at a loss to try and explain just why Luton’s home form as been so bad this season, as they haven’t won since a 2-0 triumph over Barnet on November 14, some six games ago.

He continued: “It’s something that needs to be looked at.

“Whether it be a mental reason for it, or psychological, I don’t know what it is, or just performances have not been good enough, as simple as that, but it’s certainly something we need to look at.

“You’ve just got to look at the crowds we get, there is an expectancy here that I think can be used as a real positive and we want to go out there to entertain and to win games.”

Although Town’s away form has been far more impressive this term, winning seven games on their travels, Hatters’ season is already in danger of petering out.

Luton were one of the bookies favourites for automatic promotion, but trail the play-offs by some 10 points with just 15 games remaining.

Nugent, who started the season at Leyton Orient, was surprised just how badly the club’s season has gone, saying: “I know in this league that anyone can beat anyone on any given day, it’s a topsy turvy league.

“But Luton would have been one of the teams you expected to do well, without going in depth.

“But football’s football and doesn’t always work that way.”

New Hatters boss Nathan Jones is continuing to run the rule over the squad he inherited from John Still, but Nugent believes there is the makings of a good team.

He added: “There’s some good players here, some good characters. They’re taking on some new ideas and working really hard in training.”