Luton travel to Preston this afternoon aiming to do the double over them and continue their evolution into a more potent attacking force, after two impressive performances and a victory over Coventry on Tuesday where they registered 20 shots.
That was only bettered by runaway Championship leaders Norwich on match day 37 and while Town need to convert their chances, having scored just 30 times in the league this term, there have been signs of progression.
Assistant manager Mick Harford spent his 1980s heyday with the Hatters hitting the net so there’s plenty of experience for the class of 2021 to draw from.
“We obviously need to score more goals to win games and that’s part of the evolution of going forward,” said the former England striker.
“In terms of where we want to be, where we want to get to, we want to improve as a coaching staff, as a club and our players, by doing that and by giving them different solutions.
“If you don’t score goals, you don’t win games. If you don’t keep clean sheets, you don’t win games. We play a certain way. We believe we get ourselves into great areas of the pitch and the other night (against Coventry) I thought we were excellent – and even on the game before.
“I think, overall, some of the performances over the season and especially in the last games, the performances have been excellent and have warranted more points than we’ve got.
“By doing that we play a more attacking style, getting people into certain positions, getting bodies forward, getting players around the strikers where the second balls and knock-downs are, and basically creating more chances and opportunities in the final third.”
Even in last Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Swansea, Luton were the better side and created enough opportunities to have won the game.
Harford said: “We believe some of the performances haven’t warranted some of the points we’ve amassed. Swansea was an excellent performance and the other night was an excellent performance. I could name a few performances.
“When we played Swansea the other day, that normally happens once a season, where you play really well, dominate the ball, create chance after chance but you get done with a sucker punch. That normally happens once a season, but we believe it’s happened to us three or four times this season, so it shows where we are.
“We’re growing into the league. It’s a really tough, hard league. To get to 50 points will be massive to us and then hopefully we can kick on.”
Victory at Deepdale this afternoon would complete a campaign double over Preston after beating them 3-0 in December. It would also move Luton onto that half century of points, which many believe will ensure a third successive campaign in the Championship.
Harford said: “We do have respect for the league and we do check the bottom of the table. We always check that first, I’ve got to be honest with you, to see how many points we are away from the drop.
“When we get ourselves in position to see where we are now, we do look forward and my message to the players and the fans is let’s get as many points as we can.
“Let’s not set a target, let’s try to win as many games as we can. Let’s get over 60 points and let’s have a go and see how far it takes us.
“We’re not out of the woods yet. We need to get over that 50 point mark first and there’s a tough game coming up, but let’s aim high and as high as we can.
“It would be a massive achievement if we get to 50 points before the international break. Our aim is to win as many games as we can, to get as many points on the board as we can, aim high and who knows where it will take us. If we can get to 50 points then we can play with that bit of freedom that certain teams do in those times, and who knows what can happen. We are just aiming high and trying to win as many games as we can and get as many points as we can.”
Luton will be without defenders Dan Potts (head) and Sonny Bradley (thigh), though Wales International Tom Lockyer returned to training on Thursday so will be assessed.
