Barkley: I've never been part of a team that's as close as Luton Town

​Luton midfielder Ross Barkley revealed he has never been part of a team that’s as close as the Hatters is during his illustrious career.

Having started out with Everton as a youngster, before loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United while making his way in the game, he then went to Chelsea, also playing for Aston Villa, French side Nice and representing England 33 times as well. It means Barkley has been involved in a number of high profile dressing rooms since starting out in 2010, however, none of them come close to what he has experienced since heading to Kenilworth Road in the summer.

He said: “We’ve got great togetherness in the changing room. I've probably never been part of a team that’s so close and that’s a credit to the manager and the staff as well, keeping us so close, everyone’s great at the club. It’s different, the togetherness. If the lads are playing Uno, everyone’s together, if the lads are cracking jokes everyone’s involved with it, there’s no cliques, everyone’s together.

"We went to Dubai on a trip, if the lads were going to the mall, everyone’s together, it’s great. It's like my group of mates at home, it's very similar, you feel like you've known each for a long time.”

Barkley and Luton both took a while to get going at the start of the season, the Hatters winning just once in their opening 12 top flight fixtures, as the summer signing started five times during that run. However, since the midfielder has regained his match fitness it has allowed his outstanding individual quality to shine through, scoring his third goal of the season in the 4-4 draw at Newcastle on Saturday, having a hand in Gabe Osho’s opener and also setting up Elijah Adebayo’s fourth in two matches with a perfectly weighted pass.

The result means Town have won four and drawn two from their last 10 encounters, including hammering Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0 last Tuesday night, climbing out of the bottom three, as Barkley felt the point showed just how far both he and the Hatters have come in that time, continuing: “Night and day. At the start of the season the lads were new to the league, getting used to new players like myself.

"We wanted to add a little bit of a different style, we were used to being a more direct team that was effective last season, but in the Premier League, we’ve added a few things with maintaining directness as well, we’ve grown and we are still growing now. It was an end-to-end game, entertaining for the fans. Four goals for us, four goals conceded, we could have done better with some of the goals, but a good game to be a part of and a lot of positives to take.”

Although boss Rob Edwards admitted the result was tinged with disappointment due to being 4-2 ahead in the second period, Barkley believes the fact that they hadn’t conceded again when being pegged back by the hosts, especially during 10 minutes of stoppage time, was a real plus, adding: “Away from home at St James’ Park against Newcastle who are a top side, they’ve got players who are returning from injury, so over the next few weeks they’re going to improve on the results.

"They’ve got Callum Wilson back and they're improving again as they had a bit of a drop off, but for us its been a great week. Every one of the lads in the changing room is feeling positive, a little bit disappointed to concede a few goals, but they are a good side.

"Four-four here with 10 minutes added time, when they've just scored two to get back into the game, most teams in the league probably cave and maybe concede in the last minute and Newcastle win 5-4. The way we were able to manage it and then we had the best chances in the last 10 minutes when Chieo hit the target, if we had scored there, you would say we created the best chance, but a good game. We’re all positive as we just want the next game to come around.”