Hatters boss wishes Watford clash was on New Year's Day as he describes Town's fixtures as 'mental'

Luton boss Nathan Jones would have loved to see his side take on fierce rivals Watford on New Year’s Day after the fixtures for the 2022-23 Championship were announced recently.

Instead Town will be on the road with a lengthy trip to play-off semi-final opponents Huddersfield Town, despite the league stating they would do their best to ‘minimise travel distances’ over the festive period this year.

Town travel to the Hornets, who they beat 1-0 when facing them at Kenilworth Road back in the 2020-21 campaign when no fans were allowed in due to Covid, on October 22, with the return clash in Bedfordshire scheduled for April 1.

Speaking about the contest, and an August period which sees the Hatters visit Bristol City, Swansea City and Cardiff City in the space of 14 days, Jones said: “It’s a great game for both clubs.

"It’s a derby, you want to play in these games, you want to manage in these games and you want to be involved as fans and as a club in these games, so it’s a wonderful fixture.

"I don’t know who does the fixtures though.

"We’re up and down the M4 for three consecutive away games, I know it’s the un-luck of the draw but fixtures are mental.

"We have Huddersfield on New Year’s Day, I don’t know about the local fixtures?

"It would have been lovely for a New Year’s Day game at Watford, it would have fantastic but anyway, it is one of those things.

"There’s some great games to look forward to and hopefully a similar but ultimately better season than last year.”

Luton will begin proceedings at home to Birmingham City, with the Blues side winning 5-0 at Kenilworth Road last season following that up with a comfortable 3-0 success in the West Midlands too.

Asked if the Hatters owed their opponents one for the manner of the defeats, Jones continued: “We owe them two!

"It’s a different year, last year we inexplicably didn’t perform in both games.

"We kept 19 clean sheets last year and capitulated on both occasions against Birmingham.

"I cant fathom how we did it because we bounced back immediately straight away.

“It was probably two fluke results where Birmingham played well on the day, did their job, and we didn’t and that sometimes can happen.”

The Town chief completed his fifth signing of the summer on Saturday with Nottingham Forest keeper Ethan Horvath joining on a season-long loan.

When asked for his thoughts on the rest of the division’s business in the transfer window, he added: “I haven’t taken too much notice of anything.

"It’s been a slow window in terms of a lot of things, people will strengthen, people will make decisions, they’ll wait.

"I’m not concerned with the level of other people, all I’m concerned is with us.

"If we’re the best version of ourselves, we’re actually a good team and that’s all I can concentrate on.

“Some will be favourites, we were relegation favourites, or in the three or four the bookies thought would go down, we surpassed that, so you just never know.”