Now his Hatters future is secure until 2022, Danny Hylton is dreaming about breaking his Championship goalscoring duck – and he doesn’t care how.
The striker’s Luton career – which has seen him score 58 times in 129 games – looked to be ending under former boss Graeme Jones, who played him twice for a total of 20 minutes, after his return from a lengthy knee injury at the turn of the year.
But when the manager was released and replaced by old manager Nathan Jones during Coronavirus lockdown, things started looking up for the talismanic forward.
Hylton, who was signed by the Welshman in 2016, featured in all nine games after the restart, helping the Hatters to secure a Great Escape, coming mightily close to scoring in the final game against Blackburn Rovers.
He’s not netted since March 23 last year and he said: “Normally you play it down, don’t you, and say it’s not about me scoring, and it’s not, it’s about the team, but I can’t wait to score my first goal.
“it’s been a long time, it’s something that I think about a lot, so I won’t put too much pressure on myself, but I hope that a ball just hits me somewhere and ends up going in the back of the net, I’ll take anyone at the minute.
“Hopefully I’ll keep putting myself in the right positions when I play and hopefully I can score one before too long.”
The Town squad have been back in pre-season training since Monday, having had just a fortnight off between their final day heroics of the much-delayed last season.
But that suits Hylton, who said: “Being out injured for ages, then coming back, going into lockdown for ages and then coming back and the season ending quickly, the last thing I want is another long break.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to training, touch wood – staying fit and being the fittest I’ve been for a long time, and getting back to playing my best football.”
And the striker is hoping the short break will mean Luton can pick up where they left off after taking 16 points from a possible 27 to survive in the Championship.
“We were talking about it the other day,” he said, adding: “Normally you’re off for six or seven weeks, and you get a long period of time off and you can lose it. But we are only getting two weeks off this time.
“So, I believe that you are not going to be too far off where we were at the end of the season. They are going to want us to hit the ground running and I’m sure we are going to be looking to try to take that momentum into next season.”
