Palmer unfazed by expectation as he targets becoming a 'key player' for Luton

New Hatters signing Kasey Palmer is ready to take on the mantle of being one of the club’s key players after agreeing to return to Kenilworth Road on a permanent basis recently.

The 29-year-old was an absolute star during his loan spell from Hull City last term, as it wasn’t just his superb goal return, netting eight times in 20 League One outings that made him a crowd favourite, but also his brilliant performances in what had previously been a lacklustre campaign, that saw fans desperate for him to return once the campaign ended.

They got their wish when a deal was agreed between the two clubs for Palmer to come back, but having seen the heights he can reach, the expectation will be for the Jamaican international to not just replicate those, but to go on and better them. It’s something he is ready to face head on, saying: “It comes with pressure, but that's what football is about.

"It would be easy if I was going to the park and playing and there were no fans and the expectation wasn’t there, so it’s football. I suppose this year fans will expect me to deliver and it’s for me to deliver. It’s not about shying away from that, I’ve got to take the responsibility of being one of the key players now and step up to the plate.”

Having scored 21 career goals in the previous decade of his career prior to his opening strike for Town against Doncaster on March 10, then it made what happened next, Palmer netting eight times in 12 matches, even more remarkable. Asked why he thinks he became so prolific and on whether he has plans to top that this term, the midfielder continued: “I think that’s another thing as well, Jack’s (Wilshere) tactics and how he wants to play suited me towards the end of the season.

"I had a spell when I was playing a bit deeper with the injury to Walshy (Liam Walsh), but towards the end of the season I felt free, I felt like I was expressing myself and enjoying my football which transferred to the pitch with the goals. So hopefully I can play a lot higher this season. I think Jack knows I want to play higher, he wants to play me higher, so we’ll see how it goes. I did actually set a target when I was holiday with my missus but I’ll keep it close my chest and if I hit it by the end of the season then I’ll say it.”

With Palmer happy to have the added burden on himself, it will be the same for the rest of his team-mates too, as despite Leicester City, Sheffield Wednesday and Oxford United coming down from the Championship, plus big-spending MK Dons promoted from League Two, the Hatters will be one of the favourites to go up again this term.

In fact they are third with the bookies to win the title at 8/1, and Palmer is well aware there is only one goal in mind having just missed out on promotion last term, saying: “I think everyone knows that the club want to get promoted this season, the signings that have been made show that. Signing Bolton’s captain (George Johnston) who got promoted last season, me, Walshy (Liam Walsh) and Clicker (Jordan Clark) have come back from last season.

"Jack will want to add, there’ll be new signings from now until the window shuts, and I think the target’s obviously going to be to get promoted. We can’t shy away from that and try and take the pressure off as the pressure’s going to be there to get promoted. We’ve got one of the best squads in the league, if not the best, we’ve got to believe in what we can deliver, so I think it’s just about implementing what we know can do and backing it up on the pitch.

"We can only look at ourselves though. Other teams will be different to us. We’ve got quite a lot of our core that we built with last season which is a positive for us. Other teams will be making a lot more changes in the transfer window, coming down from the higher league. It was like that last year for Luton coming down from a higher league, so if we just build from what we built last year then we’ll have a good, good chance.”

To give themselves the best opportunity of achieving their aim of finishing inside the top two, the Hatters could really do with continuing their stunning end of season form that saw them win eight from their last 10 League One matches, giving themselves a huge chance of reaching the play-offs only for results to go against them on the final day of the campaign, as they ended up a solitary point short.

Palmer is confident that the players who were involved in those sequence of results now fully understand just how Wilshere expects them to set up, and once the new signings are also on board, Luton will be an even tough proposition to play against, adding: “The way we played in those last 11 games, the fans and people outside will say won all those games, but I think before that we were still playing very well, we were playing the way Jack wanted us to play.

"After a few months we were growing and growing, results weren’t really going our way and then we hit that run of 11 games, but just the way Jack wants to play, it’s clear now. The players that are here from last year know how Jack wants to play, obviously the players that are signed already or are going to be signed through pre-season are going to have to buy into that quite quickly and I think we’ll be flying. We’ve already got a philosophy and I think the fans can see what we’re trying to do, so it’s just about implementing it in a game.”