Jones: Pressure is on Luton's rivals in Championship promotion race

Town boss hails progress from last year
Hatters boss Nathan JonesHatters boss Nathan Jones
Hatters boss Nathan Jones

Town boss Nathan Jones believes it will be the Hatters' promotion rivals and not his own side who will be feeling the pressure going into the final eight games of the campaign.

Ahead of the season starting back in August, not many outside of the Kenilworth Road dressing room would have predicted the Luton to be in the shake-up for a top six berth, or still in with an outside chance of finishing second going into April.

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However, that is the case as a 12th win from 18 league matches saw Town climb up to third following a 3-1 win at Hull City on Saturday.

They are now six points behind Bournemouth having played two matches more, but have a four point advantage over seventh-placed Middlesbrough, Chris Wilder’s side still with a game in hand, while Nottingham Forest are a point further back, with two fixtures to catch up on.

When asked if Town's lofty position brings any more added pressure with it as Luton are now there to be shot at, Jones said: “No, why would it?

“You dream of going up automatic, dream of winning the Championship, so we’re in a great place.

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“These have justified their selections, their signings, justified the work we do, we’ve got nothing to fear.

“There’s a lot more pressure on everyone else around us as if sides around us don’t go up, then it’s more than just pride gets hurt.

“But with us, we’re evolving.

“What we wanted to do was to beat last year, to progress from last year and we’ve done that as we’ve now got one more point with eight games to go than we had last year.

“Numbers wise, we’re far out-weighing, we have progressed again, so realistically, our job is done.”