Hylton knows Town need to roll their sleeves up and perform against fellow top six sides Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest

Town forward Danny Hylton knows the Hatters need to put in a performance at fellow play-off contenders Huddersfield Town tonight plus Nottingham Forest on Good Friday to prove they are capable of achieving a top six berth this term.

The Hatters go into this evening’s encounter one place and one point below their opponents, sitting fifth in the table following Forest’s 2-0 victory over Birmingham City at the weekend.

Success for Luton would give their chances of extending their season a huge boost, moving them back up to third once more and with a five point cushion over Blackburn in fifth, before hosting Steve Cooper’s Reds at Kenilworth Road four days later.

Following successive draws with Millwall and Peterborough, Hylton said: “It’s time to roll your sleeves up.

"If you want to get in the play-offs, these are the games that you have to go and perform in.

“Both of those teams are trying to get in the play-offs as well, so if you end up in the play-offs at the end of the season it’s because you deserve it.

“When we came back after the international break there was eight games to go.

"Listen, as much as we would have liked to, we were never going to go and win all eight games.

“We were going to try, but rarely do you win eight on the spin.

"We’re going to draw games, we’re going to lose games along the way possibly, we’ll try not to, but as long as we keep picking up points and keep winning games, we’ll be all right.”

One thing that Luton won’t be lacking during the run-in to the campaign is the effort from whoever is selected, especially after a number of Town’s squad have been asked to play out of position in recent weeks.

Hylton himself has adopted a midfield role at times, starting in a deeper role during the 1-1 draw on Tuesday night before moving into attack when Cameron Jerome went off injured and going on to net his fourth of the season.

It’s one of the main reasons why Town have done so well this year though, as the long-serving striker continued: “That’s the biggest thing I can say about this team is we work hard every day.

“It doesn’t matter if you put a full back in centre half or a striker in midfield, or whoever, the lads give 1,000 per cent and they try their best whatever they’re asked to do.

“There’s no individuals, there’s no superstars in that team, we’ve got some real quality in there, but everyone knuckles down day-in day-out.

“If we keep doing that, if people have to play out of position they will do and we keep working hard, I’m sure we can achieve what we want to.”

Hylton and his fellow forwards will be trying to break down a Terriers defence this evening that won’t contain ex-Hatter Matty Pearson, who moved to the John Smith’s Stadium in the summer and has played 42 times, with four goals so far.

He has been ruled out after suffering a knee injury in training, as the striker added: “He’s a brilliant defender, but the Championship is full of brilliant defenders.

"Whether it’s Matty Pearson or someone else, we’ll just concentrate on ourselves and prepare right.

“We know what Huddersfield are good at and we'll go there and try to win the game.”