Luton Town fan’s view: Recent signings from non-league football just haven’t worked

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 Hatters fan David Mackie was impressed with the signing of defender Scott Cuthbert – and thinks more transfers of this ilk are required if Luton are to reach League One next season.

IT may be less than a month since the season ended but football already seems like a world away.

The summer slog without the beautiful game is upon us and in the absence of a major tournament to keep us occupied the withdrawal symptoms are stronger than ever.

Talk at these times is naturally dominated by transfer gossip and the potential comings and goings at clubs around the country.

Even after a disappointing season, the arrival of new faces can quickly raise morale for the fresh challenges ahead and make fans long for August.

Luton know this disappointment more than most clubs after a slide from automatic contention in League Two to not even being in the play-offs.

When Luke Guttridge so memorably sealed a 1-0 win over Northampton Town with a last gasp strike in late October, before ignoring the modern day annoyance of players not celebrating against their old clubs, who would have thought that the Hatters would slide out of the shake-up altogether?

Maybe more than a few Town fans did after getting used to more than our fair share of doom and gloom over the years but it doesn’t mean that we have to like it and it’s clear that new players are needed to stop a repeat of this alarming run.

So what sort of reinforcements do we need in order to achieve better things in 2015/16?

The answer, for me, is experienced campaigners and I think it is encouraging that boss John Still seems to realise that as well.

After this season ended so disappointingly, Still responded by releasing seven players and transfer listing six more.

Strikers Alex Wall and Charlie Walker, midfielders Jim Stevenson, Kynan Isaac, Ian Rees and Charlie Smith and defender Brett Longden were all sent packing after their contracts expired while Curtley Williams, Fraser Franks, Alex Lacey, Ross Lafayette, Andy Parry and Matthew Robinson were placed on the list.

This news was later followed by the release of Ricky Miller, Shaun Whalley and Danny Fitzsimons, the former having his contract terminated, and there is a common theme that is obvious when you study these players who have been deemed not to make the grade.

The link is a lack of Football League experience and when you digest the list you quickly realise that there are an awful lot of signings there which just haven’t worked out.

Wall came from Maidenhead United and showed glimpses of class but failed to really kick on to find his true potential.

He also had an underwhelming loan spell back in the Conference with Bristol Rovers which raises question marks about his ability to do the business in the league above and beyond.

Walker, meanwhile, came from minnows Peacehaven & Telscombe, Williams was from Lowestoft, Franks and Lafayette signed from Welling, Parry and Whalley joined from Southport, Miller came from Boston and Fitzsimons and Stevenson were plucked from Histon.

The rest came through the youth system and have been sent out to lower leagues on loan, where they presumably failed to impress to the required standard.

Out of the group Whalley made the biggest impact with 35 Hatters appearances but for the rest match-time in a Luton shirt was at best sporadic and at worst nonexistent.

Non-league football is a world away from the demands of the Football League and reaching below the trapdoor for players is always a gamble.

Of course it can pay off spectacularly – Hinckley United’s Andre Gray being the most obvious example for Luton fans – and if it is done right buying non-league talent can be a cost effective way of adding some quality to your squad.

The gamble for Still and Luton hasn’t paid off in recent times though and although it is of course admirable to cast your eye on part-time football and give opportunities to those who may find it hard to get noticed, it is not the route Luton should go down at this point.

That’s why the signing of Leyton Orient’s Scott Cuthbert was so pleasing – a seasoned professional at Football League level who, after reaching a play-off final, knows all about life in the professional game and the challenges it presents.

Let’s hope for more players of the same ilk when further arrivals are inevitably announced over the coming weeks.

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