Jones: Keeping Luton in the Championship would rival League Two promotion win

Luton boss Nathan Jones believes that keeping Town in the Championship this evening would rival his achievement of winning promotion with the Hatters to League One back in the 2017-8 campaign.

The Luton chief ensured Hatters were playing third tier football after finishing second to Accrington Stanley and then led them to what was the start of back-to-back promotions the following campaign.

He left for Stoke City, before returning to Kenilworth Road during lockdown and has masterminded Town to within one win of staying up, with a victory over Blackburn Rovers in the final game of the season tonight expected to be enough.

Jones said: "I have thought about that, it’s difficult because over a 46 game season, to get promoted, you have to be consistent over a real long period of time.

“Then over a short period of time against every single odd possible, because were bang on favourites to go down, probably at the beginning of the year and definitely coming out of lockdown, it's a fantastic achievement to turn around what we have so far.

"It’s a real good platform to go into the final game, but it takes some team to get promoted.

“You've got to be consistent for 46 games near enough and to do that and to play with that pressure, so I wont take anything away from the two promotions that we’ve had, as it does take quite a lot.

"This has been more like a sprint, so I'm not saying that 400m is slightly better than a marathon, no, because we've been consistent in both.”

Although Jones did think it would be a huge feather in the club's cap to stay up when they were one of the certainties to go down before he took over, the ex-Brighton coach didn't accept that he had worked a miracle in such a short space of time.

He continued: "It would be an incredible achievement to stay in the division and a lot of credit has to go to the previous manager as well.

"As leading into lockdown, they had a decent bit of momentum which gathered points and hopefully enabled us to reach a target.

"For us to stay in the division with everything we’ve had, it’s just the budget and a lack of experience in the Championship, it’s nothing else.

"These are good enough to play in the Championship, these group of players are categorically good enough.

"It’s not about we’re not good enough and we’re fighting against all odds, the experience we have of being a Championship club, we haven't had for a while.

"Apart from that this is a Championship club, the infrastructure, the training ground, the people we have in place, the players are good enough to be Championship players.

"They are showing that now, so it’s going to be a great achievement, but not miraculous, not fighting against every odd possible, we’ve built for three years for these moments and it would be a shame to let that go.”

While fans have spent the entire day on social media with nerves frayed prior to kick-off, Jones didn't think the players needed any reminding about the importance of the encounter.

He said: “If they don’t understand it, there’s something radically wrong as it’s a big game, a big occasion, stakes are high.

"We’re used to playing in games, these group of players are used to playing in big games and used to having to win, because when you’re at the right end of the table, having to win, it’s just as important as where we are now.

"So we can’t hype it up for them to be fearful, they can’t be fearful, we've got to embrace the challenge as when we came in in May, if you had given us this scenario now we’d have taken it.”

Luton have managed to give themselves a realistic chance of staying up by taking three wins, four draws and just one defeat from their eight games since the season restarted, a total of 13 points from a possible 24.

Jones added: "It’s been a good haul from them, I couldn't ask for anything more.

"Attitude, commitment, maybe a little bit more quality at times, a little bit more clinical edge, then maybe we would already be safe, but I couldn't ask for much more.

"They've given me everything, they’ve been a great group to work with, they come in every day and do what I ask them, they are very open minded, in good form and a lot can happen.

"It can affect people in different ways, it can galvanise you, it can give you that spur, but we’ve got motivation to try and win a game and that’s all you can ask for.

"I can't second guess anything else, what’s going to happen, all I can say is we will be motivated to try and win the game, for us to get to a certain points total we believe is enough.”