Hatters midfielder looking for victory when Luton resume their Championship campaign at the Riverside

Town midfielder Jordan Clark is well aware of the task ahead of the Hatters as they return to Championship action after the World Cup break with a trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

The former Premier League club had been expected to challenge for a return to the top flight this term, but were struggling at the wrong end of the table under Chris Wilder, so much so that the former Sheffield United boss lost his job in early October.

Before the month was out, ex-Manchester United and England midfielder Michael Carrick was taking his first steps into a senior management position and things have gone well so far, on a run of three wins from four, with just one defeat in his opening five matches.

Although Boro fans have not seen a victory on home soil since October 5, taking one point from a possible nine, with both teams having not played in almost a month, Clark said: “Every game’s difficult, but they hit the ground running when he took charge, so it will be a tough game.

"We’ll prepare for them as best we can.

"It will be interesting to see how everyone reacts to the first game back, starting up again after such a long time off mid-season.

"Every away game is even tougher than the home games, but we’ll be positive and go there looking for the three points and hopefully we’ll get it.

“You’ve got to try and perform your best and some games away from home you’ve got to be a bit more defensive, which might work in your favour a little bit, being a bit more cautious than you are at home.

"I think we’ll go there and play like the manager wants us to play and hopefully we can put in a good performance for him and get the three points.

"And for the travelling away fans as well, which I’m sure there’ll be a good number going up.

"Luton fans always travel well, first game back you want to start off well and on the front foot, so fingers crossed.”

With Town returning to action sitting in 11th place, one point off top six, Clark is still aiming for an improvement on last season’s position which saw the Hatters secure the final play-off berth, eventually losing out 2-1 on aggregate to Huddersfield.

He continued: “I think it’s more competitive this year than last year, it’s a lot more open, everyone seems to be beating everyone.

"So if we can put a little three, four game run together at the start, it would put us in a good position.

"Get in and around the play-offs and then who knows where that will take you, but hopefully we can go one better than we did last year.”

Following the trip to the Riverside Stadium, the Hatters then are back on home soil against Millwall next Sunday, that game now moved to an 11.30am kick-off for the World Cup Final.

They also host Norwich City on Boxing Day, before visiting QPR and Huddersfield over a typically busy festive period, as Clark added: “Everyone wants to spend Christmas with the families, but being a professional, your body is just used to the Boxing Day game and this one is a late kick-off, so it will be a bit of a stranger one than normal.

"But Christmas, January time, is always a busy period, and picking up as many points as possible is always important.

"It’s one of the most important times of the season, so fingers crossed we can have a good start to the new start-up again and hopefully we can hit the ground running.”