Hatters skipper: Play-off places are definitely up for grabs in the Championship

Town skipper Sony Bradley believes that a place in the Championship play-offs is definitely up for grabs this season.

The Hatters entertain Stoke City this afternoon, sitting eighth in the division following their opening 16 games and just a point off the Potters in sixth.

Although the top two of Bournemouth and Fulham appear to be locked in their own battle for the title this term, Hatters could go as high as fought with a win over their opponents today and other results going their way.

With that in mind, Bradley insists they now have realistic aims of finishing in the top six, as he said; “Definitely, if you've been to watch us this season, home and away, I know the Birmingham game and Preston where we didn’t turn up, but if you look at everyone we’ve played, I don’t think there’s anything to fear so far in this division.

"There’s of course a couple of really good teams in Fulham and Bournemouth who are up there at the minute and going to be very hard to catch for any team, but I think the other four places in the play-offs are up for grabs.

"It's just about which teams can put a run together and really believe they can get there.

"The teams that do that will end up in those places and I don’t want to talk about it too much as we are very early in the season and anything can happen, but for us we believe we deserve to be up there.

"There’s games where we’ve missed out on points where we probably deserve something, so we could be even higher, but let’s not get carried away.

"Let’s take it game by game and let’s approach every game like we want to win as that’s what we want to do and let’s see how far it takes us.”

After today's game, Town have another international break, but when they return, Nathan Jones' men nine games before and after the congested festive period ahead of the FA Cup third third round weekend of January 8/9.

With 27 points to play for, Bradley knows it’s an important time for the Hatters if they want to cement their ambitions of extending their season beyond May 7, as he continued: “As you go into December and then into the Christmas period, you get to the new year, you’re going to come up against teams who are in and around you because the league's so tight.

"You can play against a team who are six or seven places below you, but if they beat you, they can overtake you, so every game is important.

"If we keep this momentum, keep this form, keep our confidence, continue winning these games which are important, let’s see how far we go.”

To finally end a run of 11 games without a win over Stoke City, and earn a first home win over the Potters since February 2000, Bradley knows his side have to start fast.

They couldn’t quite do so against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, relying on a three goal blitz after half time, but the captain believes they will make it much easier for themselves if they can produce that kind of performance from the off.

He said: “Even at 3-1, we’re still pushing to go four, to go five, I think Middlesbrough were a bit shell-shocked, they didn’t expect that because in the first half there wasn’t too much in it.

"We were nowhere near our best, if you’ve got five gears, we were probably in second gear which for us at home is not what we want.

"We need to start on the front foot, we need to start quick as when we do that, the fans get right behind you.

"They get behind you anyway, but if you start quick and get the first goal, the fans get right behind you and we’re very, very difficult to play against, especially here at home.

"So it was one of them and we spoke at half time and just said if we get out of second gear, if we go through the gears and get to where we think we should be, we’ll win the game quite comfortably and that’s what we did."

Although they didn't keep a clean sheet on the night, Town still boosted their goal difference by another two as they now have the fourth best in division, bettered only by the top three.

Bradley added: "Obviously a positive goal difference is better than a negative, I’m not too sure what its been over the past couple of years, I don’t think its been too great.

"The Birmingham game was a big dent for us, minus five goals, we clawed it back against Coventry, but I still think we've kept a fair amount of clean sheets this season.

"It would have been nice to get back to 50 per cent for the season, but it hasn’t happened.

"A positive goal difference at the end of the season, if we are in and around it, which we want to be, then goal difference could be important.

"So it’s important to keep getting those clean sheet and scoring those goals.”