Harford happy to hear that Mpanzu is aiming for the play-offs

Luton assistant boss Mick Harford hailed the positive attitude of midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu who claimed the Hatters can still make the Championship play-offs this season.

With nine games of the campaign remaining, Town are 12 points away from the top six although Nathan Jones’ side still have a game in hand over Reading.

Following the 1-0 win at Preston last time out, which made it back-to-back victories for the Hatters, Mpanzu stated a push for the the play-offs was still on.

Harford was happy to hear of such ambition ahead of the Good Friday trip to Derby County, saying: “Nothing’s impossible, that’s the kind of mentality that we really like and love here.

“Pelly has that positive attitude, along with all of us.

“We have the mindset of trying to win every game and that’s great to hear from one of our players, thinking we can achieve that. 

“Of course, we believe we can win as many games as we can and try to make a late push for the play-offs.

“It’s a big ask but not impossible.

“We don’t want to rest on our laurels, our aim is kick on and get as many points as we can.

“We’re going to have to use the squad over the coming games, especially over the Easter period, but we want to win as many games as we can.

“We want to ideally stay unbeaten, keep clean sheets, win games, play on the front foot and get as many points as we can.”

Although Town claimed six points from six prior to the international break, Harford didn’t think Town would have lost any momentum going into their trip to Pride Park tomorrow.

He continued: “I think it came at a good time for us after a good win at Preston.

“The boys have been in training sporadically over the last 14 days, they had a couple of days off here and there, but when they’ve been in they’ve trained really hard.

“Nathan’s been able to do some really good prep with them for the games with Derby County and Barnsley, so its been really productive in terms of getting the teams ready for the next two games.

“That’s very true, but it’s good to go into the international break with a good result, though the performance up at Preston was excellent, another clean sheet, didn’t really look like conceding anything and played well, especially the second half.”

Luton had three players away with their countries, James Collins (Republic of Ireland), Simon Sluga (Croatia) and Joe Morrell (Wales), but Harford didn’t think they would have missed too much from not being involved at the Brache.

He added: “Apart from Simon they’ve all had minutes, but I know when they go away with their country they train hard, train well and that’s the way they are.

“It’s a quick turnaround for them to come back, but they know the way the manager works, they know what’s needed every single day.

“Collo’s been here for five years, so he knows the procedures and the structure, the way we train, the way we do things here.

“Joe hasn’t been here as long as the others, but if we feel it’s right to fit them back in, then we’ll slide them back in.

“Being away for a long period of time, stuck in hotels, training hard and doing other things, we have to integrate them back in slowly.”