Jacob Butterfield believes he can get his career back on track at Luton after a challenging 18 months.
The midfielder has been the Hatters’ star man in both of his Hatters starts this term, operating in defensive midfield and setting the tone for Town attacks.
It’s a style of football the 29-year-old is relishing, despite successive 2-1 defeats to promotion tips, Cardiff and West Bromwich Albion.
Butterfield commanded a £5million transfer fee when he moved from Huddersfield to Derby County in 2015 and played 86 times for The Rams in two seasons, scoring nine times.
But he was sent out on a season-long loan to Sheffield Wednesday two years ago and it was not a happy time for the Yorkshireman during a turbulent time for The Owls.
He moved on loan to his hometown team Bradford for the second half of last term before his contract with Derby was cancelled in the summer, paving a way to Luton.
Butterfield said: “I’ve had a disappointing couple of seasons but that’s football. It doesn’t always go your way. You have tough times and you have to learn lessons, but it doesn’t mean you’re any less of a player than you have been previously. It’s just that different managers have different opinions.
“Different players, in and out of form, you have to learn from these situations in life, in football and grow.
“I think I’ve learnt an awful lot in the last 18 months. I’m more mature as a person, as a player and hopefully I can contribute a lot this season.”
Hatters boss Graeme Jones is dedicated to playing passing football and playing out from the back, which affords plenty of possession for Butterfield, as the deepest lying midfielder.
He said: “I really like the way this team plays and I feel like it suits me and I feel like I suit the team. I’m really positive about that and really positive about the team this season. I think we can do well and win a lot of football matches.
“We’ve shown more than enough in the first three matches to show that we can do that. It’s positive, going forward.”
Butterfield was a key component as Luton kept 63 per cent possession at ex-Premier League Cardiff in the second game of the campaign and that will be one of the aims again when Town face Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough tomorrow night.
I’m really positive about that and really positive about the team this season. I think we can do well and win a lot of football matches.
He said: “I always think in this league, the best way to not concede is to have the ball and attack. Teams, I wouldn’t say don’t like defending, but I always feel like we can cause problems.
“The more we have the ball, the better and I think we will score goals. Obviously, we’ve conceded too many.
“Three games and seven goals in the three games is not ideal. Clean sheets are king in this league and, normally, teams say that to get in the play-offs or get promoted you need 20-odd clean sheets.
“That shows how important that is, so the sooner we can get some clean sheets the better. “I think we’ll always score goals, it’s just at the other end where we need to starting keeping them out of the net and where we need to improve.”
