Collins: Being told to play central for Town is 'music to my ears'

Town striker James Collins has described being instructed to play a more central role up front this season as ‘music to my ears’.

The 29-year-old finished top scorer for Luton in the Championship last term with 14 goals.

That impressive tally came despite being asked to play in a much wider and deeper position at times under previous manager Graeme Jones.

However, since Nathan Jones returned to the club during lockdown, the boss has made it clear he wants Collins to play in the role he has carved out a reputation for himself during an 11-year career to date.

During Saturday’s Carabao Cup first round tie against Norwich, Jones and assistant Mick Harford were both heard shouting at the striker to ‘get in the box’ and ‘play more central’, which Collins did, with a 16-minute hat-trick in the second half, sealing a 3-1 victory.

Speaking afterwards, he said: “The gaffer’s adamant on me staying more central, working in between the 18-yard box.

“That’s perfect for me, as that’s where I want to be and that’s where I score my goals, so for him to drum that down is music to my ears really.

“Any striker in any league will tell you to get a goal in their first game of the season is great, but to get three is brilliant for me, so I’m personally delighted.”

Keeper James Shea was quick to pay tribute to the predatory instincts of Collins, who has now bagged 62 goals in 140 games for the Hattesr since he arrived from Crawley Town in the summer of 2017.

He said: "He’s class, he’s our goalscorer, he’s our focal point, he’s our main man, he puts the ball in the net.

"I don’t mean this in a bad way, but there’s nothing flash about Collo, he’s a typical striker, he puts the ball in the goal, puts his head where it hurts, even in training.

"He’s just a typical striker, he wants to win, he wants to score every day in training, he has a competition with the keepers every time we have a shooting session.

"He’s on the keepers, he wants to beat us, we want to beat him, he's quality, he’s what you want up top."

Town looked sharp at both ends of the pitch on Saturday, restricting a Canaries side to long-range shots, with Shea also excelling between the posts.

After conceding a total of 82 goals in the Championship last term, Collins knew that work needed to be done at the back to make his job easier.

He added: “We work on that in the week, it’s not just a fluke, we know our jobs.

“We’ve got honest, hard-working lads in the team and they want to work for each other, they want to see the lads working.

“So when you’ve got a group like that, lads who are willing to put the yards in then it’s always going to help.

“I thought we looked a lot more solid and that’s going to give us a better chance of winning games.

“If we’re keeping clean sheets then it’s up to us to find a way to score goals.

“If you need to score two, three, four goals a game to win then it’s going to be difficult, but I do agree, after lockdown, I think that was a big reason why we stayed up.

“We were a lot more solid and kept a lot more clean sheets, so credit to the gaffer and staff that came in and credit to the lads for buying into it, as I thought that kept us in the Championship.

“It’s always nice to know you’ve got lads that want to work for you behind you, as I want to work for the lads behind me too.

"I know if I go that they’ll back me up, which is nice to know when you’re out there on the pitch.”