Luton skipper insists Town have a Championship squad now

Town captain Sonny Bradley believes Luton have proved they possess a squad worthy of their Championship status now.

The centre half was one of a number of players untested in the second tier going into last season, as despite coming through the ranks at Hull City, he only made two appearances for the Tigers before dropping down the leagues.

After playing for Aldershot, Portsmouth, Crawley and Plymouth, Bradley then moved to Kenilworth Road and got his chance in the Championship once more, when Town won the League One title.

Bradley played 40 games last term, also adding three goals to his name, as the skipper believes both he and his team-mates can now handle the level, saying: “We have a Championship squad right now.

“There’s players out of contract and loan players returning to their parent clubs, so naturally every season, players come and go.

“Going into last season, there was a question mark over a lot of players saying ‘can they handle it at this level?’

“Speaking for myself, I hadn’t had a full season in the Championship, so there was a question mark over my head, ‘can he handle the Championship? Is he good enough?’

“I always said that I was, I always thought I was, I believe I’m a Championship player and next season I will be again.

“This is where I want to stay for hopefully the rest of my career and what we did in the last nine games, that could have a big impact one whether I do or not.

“So the reward for staying up now and Championship football is massive.

“It’s time to build, time to strengthen up and let’s have a better season.”

Although Town struggled for large chunks of the season, looking certainties to go down at one stage, they hit back superbly after lockdown ended, suffering just one defeat in nine matches to climb out of the bottom three on the final day.

When asked just what the difference was between Leagues One and Two, where Bradley had spent seven seasons, and the Championship, he said: “I think the main difference is obviously the quality of the players.

“There’s a lot more control in the Championship.

"Teams are a lot more structured in the way they do things and from a defensive point of view, in League One you can make certain mistakes and get away with it, whereas in the Championship there’s no average players.

“Everyone is there for a reason as they’re good players.

"You make a mistake defensively or any goalkeepers make mistakes, you do get punished and that’s the main difference for me, getting punished for mistakes.

“It’s ruthless and we found out the hard way.

“If we conceded goals or gave away sloppy goals, its very, very hard to get back into games, especially when teams are so organised and so structured, it’s difficult.”

However, Bradley did think that Town's squad will be better for their harsh introduction to life in the Championship going into the new campaign which starts in under a month's time.

He added: "We had to learn the hard way, took a bit of a punch on the nose, but we reacted really well.

“We had to fight for our position going into next season, now we’ll be far more experienced and we’re well aware of what can happen if we're not at it, even the Reading game (5-0 defeat).

"They punished us and that’s a clear message for us, that if we’re not quite at it and on that day we had many four or five players who weren’t quite at the races, if that happens, you’re going to get punished.

"Reading hadn’t been a top team in the Championship, so that just shows you how good the division is.

“I think overall we’ve learned the hard way, but we’re in the Championship and we want to stay there.”