Town boss hopes he has built some bridges with Luton supporters

Luton boss Nathan Jones hopes that he has been able to rebuild some bridges with supporters in the manner that he has almost navigated the club to Championship safety this term.

The Hatters have been in excellent form since Jones returned as manager, taking 13 points from a possible 24, including wins at Swansea, Huddersfield and Hull, to give themselves a massive chance of staying up this evening when they host Blackburn Rovers.

Jones, who left Kenilworth Road controversial fashion back in January 2019, when Luton were well placed to mount a promotion push from League One, opting to go Stoke City, replaced Graeme Jones in May, after the former boss had his contract cancelled by mutual consent earlier in lockdown.

Although his return didn’t go down well with all supporters, Jones hopes that they will have been won over by results on the pitch, saying: “People have their opinions, people are divided on certain stuff.

“Hopefully I’ve built the odd bridge in the last eight games and hopefully I can finish that by putting a nice little cherry on it.

“I didn’t come back here to do Luton a favour, Luton have needed to change managers, they’ve done it for a certain reason and that is to continue the journey that we started a long time ago.

“That's what we want to do, we got here in very quick time, a year ahead of schedule, but I told the 2020 board that at the start of the 2020 season we’d be a Championship side.

“We’re one game away from achieving that even though we’ve got a year’s experience ahead of schedule.

“We’ve had good success, we’ve been on an upward spiral and I want to make sure come Thursday morning, we continue that.”

Deciding to return to his former club was always an easy choice for Jones too, who reiterated his commitment to the club even if things hadn't gone as he had hoped.

He continued: "I've not had any regrets, it was a calculated decision coming back.

"I’m delighted to be back, people said it was a brave decision, people said I showed humility or whatever, it was an easy decision for me as soon as I knew there was a chance.

"I love being here, yes people will question that because of what happened in January, but I spoke about that.

"I had no regrets about coming back, I loved my job here, I never had a problem with my job here, it’s just, I got my head turned and that’s something that’s gone now.

"Even if things hadn’t have gone well, it’s a long term project.

"I’m glad it’s gone well, for a lot of reasons, but there was never been an ounce of regret in coming back to Luton Town in any way, shape or form.

"I've got some great relationships here, the players know me, I know them and I trust them and they give me everything and that's all you can ask for as a manager.

"Finances, stadiums, training ground, it’s the people you work with and I’ve got great people."

Although Town will head out on home soil without any supporters in attendance for the fifth time since the season restarted due to social distancing measures still in place, Jones would have loved to see a packed Kenilworth Road cheering them on tonight.

He added: “I know what it means to the fans and the club and if there were fans here, it would be a wonderful, wonderful atmosphere.

“A Thursday night, the importance of the game, a full house, Kenilworth Road, rivals probably Elland Road, not for sheer numbers, but for the vociferous-ness, if that’s a word, or the hostility and the driving force that the crowd here give us.

“That’s a big, big miss for us, because our fans are magnificent, especially on a night game.

“Night games at the Kenny are pretty special and that’s what we’re going to miss, but we have to motivate ourselves.

“As regardless of fans or not, the result is the same and the meaning of the result is the same whether there are fans here or not, but we will miss that atmosphere.”