Collins highlights the need for a positive result against Preston

Town striker James Collins believes a positive result is critical when the Hatters resume their Championship campaign at home to Preston North End on Saturday.

Luton will take to the pitch for the first time in over three months at the weekend, facing nine games to save their second tier status, as they are six points from safety, sitting second bottom in the table.

Standing in their way to begin with is a Preston side who are in sixth place, but with trips to promotion-chasing Swansea City and leaders Leeds United following tomorrow's contest, Collins knows how important getting points on the board immediately is.

He said: “Obviously a win would be fantastic but me personally I think any positive result will help the confidence and it will help the lads moving forward.

“A positive result whether it be a win or a draw would be a decent start.

“We’ve got to treat it as a nine-game season.

“If we think too much about where we are in the table it could hinder you a little bit.

“We need to get as many wins during those nine games, don’t worry about the opposition, don’t worry about no fans being there, just get in, train, keep healthy, keep safe and try and get as many wins as you can.

"We know that the only way we can stay up is by winning games and we know we have to do that sooner rather than later.

"So it is really important that we do hit the ground running when the season starts again as the quicker we get those points on the board, the easier it will be to stay up.

"We know it’s not going to be easy, we know we’ve got a lot of teams around us fighting for the same thing.

"We just know we need to win as many games as we can and I think we're quietly confident that if we do play to how we know we can, we can do it."

Boss Nathan Jones would also love his return to the club to herald a vital three points in the battle to stay up, as he said: "We’d like to, but you just never know.

"If someone said to me, right you can have this amount of wins but you’ve got to lose that, then you'd do that.

"What I’m saying is we would like to hit the ground running, like Preston will be, like Alex Neil will be, so will a lot of sides.

"It’s just we’re going into the unknown a little bit, but as much as we go into the unknown, we want to be able to control what we can.

"If we play like we can and we work as hard as we can then we will give ourselves a chance as we’ve always been a good side, especially at home."

Preston ran out 2-1 winners over Luton earlier in the season, Collins on target from the penalty spot, as the Hatters should really have left triumphant themselves, Harry Cornick missing a great chance late on to put Town in front.

On the test in front of them, Collins added: "It is a tough game, we know how good a side Preston are.

"We played them in December and to be fair, in my opinion, we were unlucky not to win the game.

"We had a couple of chances to win the game and they managed to get a scrappy winner late on.

"We know how Preston operate and that they’ve got some good players. Listening to their manager in interviews, they’ve been right at it this week.

“We know how good a side Preston are and it’s an exciting fixture. We need the points to stay up and they need the points to stay in the play-offs, so I think it’ll be a really good game.”