Town's position at the top is no surprise to Hylton

Town’s lofty position at the top of the League One table this season has come as no surprise to striker Danny Hylton.
Hatters attacker Danny Hylton shields the ball from a Rochdale defenderHatters attacker Danny Hylton shields the ball from a Rochdale defender
Hatters attacker Danny Hylton shields the ball from a Rochdale defender

With 11 games to go, starting at Plymouth Argyle this afternoon, the Hatters sit at the summit, five points in front of second-placed Barnsley.

After coming up from League Two last season, Hylton always knew they had it in them to mount a challenge for the Championship, saying: “There’s no arrogance in this team, we’re confident, we believe in ourselves and we work hard for each other.

“So if you said to me last season ‘will you be sitting top of the league?’ I wouldn’t be thinking there’s no chance of that.

"If you see the way these lads train and work every single day, they’re in the gym after, they work tirelessly, there’s no surprises that we’re sitting top of the league.

“There’s no taking it for granted though, we’re not going to take our foot off the pedal, but this team has definitely got that in them, and we’re not going to let up now.”

Town had seen their lead cut to just two points ahead of kick-off against Rochdale last Saturday, with 10-man Barnsley winning 3-0 at Southend.

However, they didn’t let the pressure get to them, as Hylton continued: “We saw Barnsley’s game in the changing room before, 2-0 up they were at the time, so we knew that we had to take care of our result and we did that.”

Striker James Collins also said: “We had it on in the dressing room before, we’d seen one of their lads get sent off and thought, ‘maybe something could happen?’

“But Barnsley are a good side, and we need to just look after what we do.

“If we keep winning and keep that gap, then who knows what will happen?

“Barnsley played really well and fair play to them for getting three points.”

Both teams in the chasing pack, Sunderland and Portsmouth triumphed as well, meaning Luton’s victory took on even more importance.

Boss Mick Harford declared he hadn’t been keeping up with goings on elsewhere though, saying: “I didn’t know that, we can only concentrate on us.

“If we keep putting in performances like that against teams who try and come and stifle us we’ll be fine. We’re going to have to expect that until the end of the season.”

After Saturday’s visit to Home Park, Luton are on the road again in midweek, heading north to Bradford City in what is another lengthy journey.

Hylton added: “It’s two tough away games, but we’ll just take it like we do every other game.

“Go there, prepare properly and when we get there, try to do the business.”