Luton defender Bree determined to add goals to his game for the Hatters this campaign

Hatters defender James Bree is determined to add more goals to his game after netting a second in three pre-season matches during the 5-0 victory against Bedford Town on Wednesday night.

The 23-year-old had played 162 senior matches for Barnsley, Ipswich, Aston Villa and the Hatters until he opened his account at the 163rd time of asking last term, scoring in Luton’s 2-0 win over Coventry City back in March.

He followed that up with a clever close range effort in the 7-0 win at Hitchin Town in Luton’s opening pre-season friendly win, while was on target once more in midweek, finding the bottom corner from 20 yards, with the aid of a slight deflection.

Speaking afterwards, Bree said: “It’s something I’ve been trying to add to my game over the last few years.

“I always said when the first one came I’d go on to score a lot more goals and I think the work that I’ve been putting in and the way that we’ve been playing in training, I can come inside a bit more and I’m getting into goalscoring positions.

“After last season, the main aim is to stay fit and be consistent in the side, get more games under my belt.

"Then I’m an attacking full back, I want to get forward, I need to do all the dirty work at the back as well, but I just want to add more assists and goals to my game.

"The more I can do that, the better player I’ll be.”

Although Bree was only on the field for the final 30 minutes at the Eyrie as boss Nathan Jones swapped his entire team around on the hour mark, he was one of the main attacking threats in the closing stages.

First he sent a set-piece just the wrong side of the post, then cutting in from his full back position to send a left-footed attempt tamely wide, before beating Eagles keeper Alex Street from just outside the box.

On his cameo, Bree continued: “I’m a little bit disappointed with my free kick, I thought should have done better with that one, but the strike, I connected with it quite well, just an unlucky deflection for them has taken it into the bottom corner.

“(On his miss) The pitch is a little bit dry, so I had to get my head down, because Elijah (Adebayo) told me off afterwards for not passing to him, like he normally does to be fair.

"I probably should have passed it, but I just got my head down and struck it, it was a shocking finish really.”

With goals hard to come by for the Hatters last term, only managing a meagre 41 in 46 Champoinship fixtures, Bree revealed it's something the Town squad are firmly aiming to rectify ahead of the new campaign.

He added: “That’s one thing we want to do as a team.

"We sat down and had a meeting together last week, we put together the goals that we wanted to do and it was to score more goals.

"Defensively last year we did really well, kept quite a few clean sheets and definitely didn’t let as many goals in, so this year we want to turn it and put them in the other end.

"If we can get Elijah and the front three going then who knows what can happen?"