Promotion to the Championship would be 'redemption' for Harford

Harford was in charge of the club when they were relegated out of the Football League in the 2008-09 season, something he feels partly responsible for, despite being severely hamstrung after Town were deducted 30 points at the start of the campaign, making staying up virtually impossible.

He left two months into the following Conference campaign, but was back at Kenilworth Road as head of recruitment in January 2016, and named interim boss once Nathan Jones left last month.

Harford has since led the club to five straight wins and a place at the top of the table in his second spell at the helm, his position extended until May earlier this week.

Luton go into tomorrow's game at Fleetwood, six points clear of second-placed Barnsley and with just 14 games to go, have a real chance of promotion, as Harford said: “The club have fought tooth and nail to get back to where they are at this moment, and 2020 you need to take your hat off to them.

“On a personal note, as I’ve said in the past, when I was in charge, I was at the helm, you do feel responsible.

“I’m going to fight tooth and nail and work my socks off and encourage the players to try and get us over the line.

"It will be some redemption I guess.”

Although watching from afar, midfielder Alan McCormack knows full well about the dark days at Kenilworth Road, with the club dropping from the Championship to the Conference in three years due to a number of problems off the field.

He is ready to restore the club to the second tier of English football though, saying: "I remember the club 10 years ago.

"I was with Southend and got relegated out of the Championship with Luton, and it was Leeds the other team.

"So after that I always kept an eye out on how Leeds and Luton were doing, see how we were all faring in League One.

“It just all seemed to go downhill from there, so I very much remember that time and what happened off the field.

“Mick’s obviously going to be conscious of that, but I think the players trust Mick and Mick trusts the players.

"The fans certainly trust Mick and everybody trusts where this club are going.

“It’s in such a good place, and you look at the signings in January (George Moncur, George Thorne, Jason Cummings and Alex Baptiste), who we brought in, it just goes to show what people think of this club nowadays.

“If we can attract those four players, long may it continue and hopefully come the end of the season we get the rewards of the hard work we’ve put in over the two or three years.”