Potts: It's mad - but there's no luck behind Luton's rise to third in the Championship

Defender Dan Potts doesn’t think there is any luck at all behind the Hatters’ position of third in the Championship this season, with Town are fully deserving of their lofty placing.

Luton climbed to just six points behind second-placed Bournemouth following a 3-1 win at Hull City on Saturday, leapfrogging a number of sides in the process.

It means with eight games to go, the Hatters are in a with a real shout of making the end of the season play-offs where they could find themselves playing Premier League football next term.

Potts said: “It’s nice, it’s a strange one, but we’re there for a reason.

“Everyone’s in their positions in the league, there’s 38 games played now, we’re in that position for a reason.

“There’s no luck, there’s no hard luck stories, we’re there on merit, let’s see where we can go, as you deserve to be where you are.”

The 27-year-old, Luton's second longest serving player behind Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, having signed for the Hatters way back in the summer of 2015 from West Ham United under previous boss John Still, did admit that it has been some rise from their original League Two surroundings.

He continued: “It’s mad, I said to a few of the boys in there, ‘it could be some story.’

“We’ve got a nice break now, we can re-energise, rest the legs for a bit as the lads put in big shifts.

"We’re going to need everyone and then eight big games, so we’ll see we what we can do.”

Town's eight away success of the campaign at the MKM Stadium on Saturday was built around a fast start to the game from the visitors, ahead after just nine minutes through Elijah Adebayo's 15th goal of the season.

With the Tigers on the run of four straight home defeats, not scoring in that time either, it was an early dent to their confidence, although Potts hadn't been focusing on that.

He said: "We didn’t really look too much into their form coming into the game.

"If they’re struggling at home so be it, but we’re going to places and we’re not really fearing anyone really.

"We’re just going there and everyone’s so front footed, teams are struggling to deal with it.

"The result was important, it’s getting to that stage of the season where it's results that are going to get us where we want to be.

"Performance was not bad as well, I thought we started okay, we had a good couple of chances and then we got the first goal which took the stuffing out of them a little bit.

"We were a disappointed at half time that we weren't more ahead, but we're scoring when we can and we’re keeping clean sheets, that’s a recipe for success."

Harry Cornick then made it 2-0 after Elijah Adebayo nicked the ball away from home defender Sean McLoughlin, before James Bree's magnificent free kick sealed the points.

With Hull trying to play out from the back for the majority, it appeared only a matter of time before they were caught, as Potts added: "We knew going into the game that they were going to try and play a little bit, play out, so we set up to press as we do most games.

"The front boys worked their socks off and the midfield three helped them out.

"The wing-backs pushed in and it was three for three at the back, we’re all comfortable one v one defenders, so it’s brave but it’s getting us results."