Hylton knows he is playing for his Hatters future

Hatters striker Danny Hylton will be doing everything he can to ensure this season at Kenilworth Road is not his last for the club.

The 30-year-old forward, who made his comeback after 11 months out with injury during last night’s 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday, will be a free agent in the summer.

Hylton has been an unqualified success since arriving from Oxford United in July 2016, with 58 goals in 119 games, and is a major reason as to why the club find themselves currently in the Championship.

However, a knee injury suffered in March 2019 against Doncaster meant that last night’s outing off the bench was his first match-action this season, casting doubts over whether he will still be a Hatter next term.

It's clearly something Hylton, a huge favourite with supporters, wants to happen though, as he said: “It’s a difficult situation going into the last year of your contract and being out for so long, it’s probably the worst time for it to happen now.

“But it’s happened and that's the situation I’ve found myself in.

"I’ve got 14, 15 games now to do as well as I can, train as hard as I can and do what I can for the team.

"I’ll be doing everything I can and doing my best to stay here as I love it here.

"I don't want to be anywhere else, so fingers crossed I can do that and see what happens."

After missing so much of the season, there had been talk of a loan move in the pipeline for Hylton to get his match sharpness back, following in the footsteps of team-mate Glen Rea, who had a brief spell at National League side Woking.

However, that was never something the striker was looking for, as he continued: "No, it’s a fair point, Glen went out, it was a period where he wanted to play certain games and come back and be fit and ready.

"The conversations I've had are ones where I won't go on loan, I’ll get fit and get ready, training with the team, so I'm thankful for that.

"A loan wasn't something I wanted to do, I wanted to stay in and around it.

"After being out for so long, and away from the team, I wanted to get back with the first team and get my fitness and sharpness back there.

"It’s something I've done over the last seven weeks, I've still a bit to do to get back to the fitness levels and the sharpness you get when you play week in week out, it’s something that I'm looking forward to doing."

Town chief Graeme Jones had told the press at first that Hylton might need a stint away from Kenilworth Road during the transfer window in a bid for fitness, but then opted against a move, wanting to assess him with his own eyes.

Hylton said: "It was never said, 'you should go on loan', there were offers, but it's not something I've ever wanted to do.

"The manager never came to me and said 'I want you go on loan.'

"It was always, 'this is what you're going to do, you're going to train with the first team, get your sharpness and fitness, play in-house games, and we'll arrange some games for you to play here.'

"I do recall seeing that in the press (loan story), but that’s probably when someone’s just been out for so long, the natural thing, 'well he can get some games on loan.'

"The conversations we’ve had, he's (Jones) always been great and positive and said that’s not something that he wants to do, he wants me to stay and get fit.

"That’s something I’ve done the last couple of months and I finally made that step back into the first team.

"I'm under no illusions that there's a way to go to getting fitter and sharper and getting to the level that I want to be."

Hylton, who was signed by former Town chief Nathan Jones, and played under Mick Harford last term too, has been impressed with what he has seen of Town's current manager, having finally made it back into training with the first team recently.

He added: "I’ve been out injured, I haven’t been around him, so although he’s been here, eight or nine months, I’ve only been around him the last seven weeks.

"The seven weeks I’ve spent with him, he’s great, a top coach, very in-depth, very detailed.

"We do lots of forward drills, lots of striking, finishing drills, I'm really enjoying it."