Luton fans fuming but Collins says: We can turn things round

LUTON striker James Collins insists his side can still survive despite suffering yet more misery.

The Hatters are rock-bottom of the Championship with just one point in seven matches after this dreadful Birmingham loss.

Kenilworth Road was a toxic place on Saturday as supporters turned on beleaguered boss Graeme Jones.

But Collins claims he and his team-mates are right behind their manager and has called for a no-holds barred meeting this week in a bid to turn things around.

Luton are now four points from safety and ex-Shrewsbury and Hibernian man Collins said:

“Of course we can stay up. We’ve played everyone before and we know what we’re up against.

“We just need to have more confidence in ourselves that we can stay up. I believe it, the staff believe it and the lads believe it. That’s our main aim.

“Of course it is doable. If you do get that win it could kickstart the season. When it comes everyone will get a lift. We need it as quick as possible.

“We need to sit down in the week and really address it. There’s 19 games left, we need to stop that rot quickly.

“We’re doing everything we can to turn it around. We train hard, we care. There’s no point pointing fingers. We need to stand together, staff and players.

“I’ve been in this situation before in Scotland and I know what is required.”

Birmingham were ahead just four minutes in courtesy of Lukas Jutkiewicz, but Collins’ 62nd-minute penalty pulled Luton level after Harlee Dean fouled Matty Pearson.

However, Gary Gardner burst forward seven minutes later to win it for the Blues.

Birmingham, who ended a six-game winless league run themselves, finished the game with 10 men for the second week running after Dean was sent off for a second bookable offence for fouling Collins.

Jutkiewicz said: “We work on things like going down to 10 men in training and it is important to put that out on the pitch.

“It requires a lot of heart and discipline, people wanting to go the extra mile for each other. We’ve been on a poor run of late and you need to grind out wins like that.”

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