Pelly wants Hatters to extend winning run at Rovers

Luton put together back-to-back victories by defeating both Crawley and Hartlepool at Kenilworth Road last week to move within three points of the top three.

Now Mpanzu, who made his 100th appearance for the club on Tuesday night, wants to maintain that form at the Keepmoat Stadium and make it three league wins in succession for the first time this season, saying: “We’ve just got to keep winning as other teams are beating everyone else.

“A nice run would be nice, a win on Saturday would be even better.

“Hopefully we can get a little run going. Promotion is the main goal. If it’s play-offs, it’s play-offs but hopefully we’re going to get top three.

“We’ve got to treat it as another game. They are top of the table but we’ll treat it as if we’re going there to get three points. The minimum to get is a point, but three points would be great for us.”

Rovers go into the match on the back of a rare defeat, losing 2-1 at Carlisle in midweek, as their 10 match unbeaten run stretching back to December 10 was finally ended.

On how it might affect them, Mpanzu continued: “It can go either way. They can lose some faith after just getting beaten or they might just come out of the blocks and fire against us.

“We’ve just got to take the game as we take it and hopefully get three points.

“We’re now a couple of points behind third and teams are beating each other. We’ve got to keep moving and it’s a big game.”

Recent addition Luke Gambin wasn’t too fazed about heading to the league leaders either, saying: “We’re not too worried about them, we know our qualities and it’s nice to get back-to-back wins going there.

“There’s a positivity around the place, so we can go there, just do our best and I think I’m sure we will put a positive performance on and it will be good.”

Leading scorer Danny Hylton was also relishing the chance to make further inroads on the top three, as he said: “We’ve just got to keep putting positive results together, cut out some of these draws, turn them into wins and I’m sure we’ll close the gap.

“We’ve got the two big boys coming up now (Plymouth next weekend). They’re going to be games where we’ll need to take some points but we’re excited. We can’t wait for them.”

Today’s game starts a crucial run of fixtures for the Hatters, as they also host Plymouth Argyle and then entertain League Oxford United in the Checkatrade Trophy semi-final on March 1.

Mpanzu added: “It’s three great games for us. We’ll see if big-game players come up with big-game goals and hopefully all of us can contribute to that.

“Hopefully we get six points and a trip to Wembley would be great for us.

“Not everyone gets to play at Wembley, so hopefully we can progress.”