Luton defender Bell: We’re proving we can take on anyone in the Championship

Defender Amari’i Bell believes the Hatters have proved they are more than capable of taking on anyone in the Championship this season.

Saturday’s goalless draw against second placed Blackburn Rovers means that Luton have faced the top three sides in their last four home games at Kenilworth Road.

A return of five points after beating Bournemouth and drawing against Fulham shows that Bell has a good point too as the Jamaican international said: “We’ve shown that we can go toe-to-toe with any of the top sides at the moment.

“I think we were just unfortunate not to get a goal in the first half, we had a few chances, but that’s football, we kept a clean sheet, got a point, so it’s good all round.

“That shows everyone in the league that we’re definitely no mugs.

“Any team that comes here or any team we play against, we never feel overpowered.

“They definitely find it hard and I think teams don’t enjoy coming here, so as long as we can keep on putting that mindset into other teams then that’s great for us.

“We always believe that we can beat these teams and I think we are showing everyone that we can do that.”

Bell has been part of a much-changed Town defence in the last few matches, with Gabe Osho and Tom Lockyer both coming in after limited game time to replace the injured Sonny Bradley and suspended Reece Burke.

Although they were breached by Bristol City in midweek, an 11th clean sheet of the campaign followed on Saturday, with the 12th arriving in Wales with a 1-0 victory at Swansea, where Burke came back in once more.

Bell continued: “Even previous teams that we’ve played we’ve limited them in terms of chances, as long we can keep limiting teams to a minimal amount of chances, we’ll do well.

“We pride ourselves as defenders on clean sheets, so we’ll take that.

“Anyone who comes into the team, they have to be ready and the people who have come in, they’ve definitely proved they can come in and do well.

“As long as anyone who’s ready to step up can keep doing that, we’ll keep on winning games.

“We just wanted to make sure that even if we don’t score, we don’t give them any chances and I thought we did that well, so clean sheet, one point, it’s good.”

Bell himself gave one of his best displays of the season at the weekend against a side he spent three years at, making 99 appearances.

Although released from Ewood Park in the summer, the full back didn’t feel that he had a point to prove going into the contest, saying: “It’s good to play against them, it’s what I wanted to do, but all games are the same for me.

"I don’t really prepare for one any different, it was a good result and we’ll take that.

“I’m a defender first, so that’s what I want to do, break up play when I can, tackle, win headers, it was good.”

His display along with the others certainly impressed boss Nathan Jones, who added: “I thought Amari’i Bell was excellent, I thought Henri Lansbury was man of the match, Gabe did fantastically well with the athleticism, we needed that.

“People coming in are really going to have to hit the ground running as it’s impossible to pick the same team, all the time, as Championship games are relentless.

“They’re physical, they’re intense, you have to keep doing the right things constantly and if you go to sleep or you don’t do the basics well enough, you’ll get punished.”

"We’re showing that we’re very consistent at the minute, we’re showing that we can compete with these sides so it’s brilliant.

"We're going to need the squad, the depth and everything else."

Town could and probably should have been walking away with the victory too, with Kal Naismith and Cameron Jerome missing inviting first half opportunities.

However, Bell felt that even just adding a point to their tally was another positive to their aims of potentially featuring in the play-offs at the end of the season.

He added: “Kal is a brilliant player, he’s got a great left foot and the goal against Bournemouth was great, so we believe he can do some of that magic at any time.

"We know we just want to keep on winning games, so as long as we keep on doing that, getting points as we did, three points wherever we can, then we’re going to put ourselves in the best position to do well.

"The good thing is that when we lost to Sheffield, everybody was disappointed, but when you put it into perspective, we had nine points out of 12, so that’s very good.

"As long as we keep on hitting a bit of form like that then we’ll put ourselves in a great position."