Ambitious Bradley knows bettering Luton's sixth place finish will be 'extremely difficult'

Town skipper Sonny Bradley is determined to give his all in the quest to make Hatters improve again from last season, even though he knows just how hard a task that will be.

The Hatters finished sixth in the Championship last term, higher up in the rankings than the likes of West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield United, Stoke and Middlesbrough.

With Norwich, Watford and Burnley dropping down from the top flight, while a number of former Premier League clubs still remain at this level, and have strengthen considerably, with Sunderland also back in the second tier after winning promotion from League One, the challenge to improve is tougher than ever.

Since manager Nathan Jones has been at the club, Luton have always bettered their final league position every term, so to do that they need to end up in fifth spot, which Bradley knows will be by no means easy.

Speaking to the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust podcast as part of the EFL Season Launch, he said: “If I was to sit here and say that because we finished sixth, now we deserve to be in the top two, I would be lying to you.

“Getting into those top two places will be very, very difficult.

"Over the past few years, we have made huge leaps.

“I have spoken about it in the past but for me, getting out of League One was great, staying up in the Championship was fantastic.

“Then to jump to 12th the season after, that is a huge step and we deserved to be there because we evolved, and we got better.

“Then last season, we’ve stepped it up again.

“The players we are bringing in are better, the squad is bigger and stronger, and we’re more comfortable in the league.

“We’ve got more experience in the league and to jump up to sixth – a play-off spot – from 12th, I don’t think people understand how big of a jump that is.

“Obviously going into this season, I feel like there is probably a little bit more pressure on us now because we’ve set the bar so high.

“There is a bit of pressure on us to go again.

“This is my fifth year here and we’ve improved every year, year in, year out.

“Going into this season, to finish above sixth and to improve again will be extremely difficult but saying that, that is our ambition.

“We’re determined to improve again, to better our position from last season.

"It will be difficult but we're ambitious and there is no reason why we can't do it."

After an unbeaten pre-season, that Luton finished off by drawing with Premier League side Wat Ham on Saturday courtesy of Bradley’s stoppage time leveller, the skipper hopes they can take that form into this afternoon’s opener against Birmingham City.

He continued: “We have a built-in mentality at this club where we always want to win.

"No matter who we play, no matter where it is, we want to win that game and that comes from the manager.

"He sets that precedent and I think the boys embrace it.

“If you watch the West Ham game, first of all I think we competed really well because they are a top club in the Premier League.

"They didn’t have too many chances, they didn’t break us down too many times and all the way to the end of the game, we were pushing to get that goal because we didn’t want to lose.

“The moment we take our foot off the gas, we will get caught out.

"It is a difficult league to play in and the club have bolstered the squad, they’ve given us more depth for that exact reason – for us to kick on.”