Nathan Jones says Luton aren’t dreaming of the Premier League just yet, despite breaking into the Championship play-off race.
Danny Hylton’s first Championship goal at Kenilworth Road was enough to see off relegation-threatened Derby County on Saturday and move Town up to sixth in the division.
The Hatters also have games in hand on the three teams above them and still have to play QPR and Huddersfield.
They’ve propelled themselves into that promising position after collecting 25 points since the turn of the year, a record only matched by league leaders Fulham.
But though fans are dreaming of another promotion push, Jones is rather more pragmatic, saying: “That’s got us to a point where we’re not looking over our shoulder. You’re not a pessimist but you have to, as a manager, make sure your club moves forward.
“The biggest disaster for us this year would be if we went down and we’ve never been in any danger of that.
“The position we’re in, we don’t dream of the Premier League, but we say, ‘we’re in a fantastic position, let’s continue that.
“If this was 45 games, now, and we had one game here against Reading which, if we won, we’d be in the Premier League, then we could start dreaming.
“It’s so long to go, 13 games to get to the Premier League and then the play-offs to get through three more. There’s a third of the season to go so we’re not getting carried away, feet on the ground. We know we have to work hard.”
Physiologically, the weekend’s result appears a big step for Luton as it also ensured Luton claimed a hat-trick of victories in the Championship for the first time since returning to the division.
Jones said: “I hope it’s a positive one because suddenly now we’re in there (the play-off places) and we don’t want to come out. You’re not climbing and clawing people back, now you’re one of those that people are trying to claw back, so it’s a different kind of pressure. We won’t feel that.
“I said them at half time, ‘where would you rather be?’ Two years ago we were coming out here, having to win games because, if we didn’t, the trap door was about to open.
“Now we’re not so go and enjoy the challenge. If we play the way we can, we’re a difficult side to play against. We’re difficult to contain and that’s all I want.
“In the first half we weren’t us. We didn’t play with enough zest and tempo, but after the first 15 minutes we did control all the territory and we had all the efforts in this half of the pitch.
“We were on top but we had to show a little more quality and more zest and, if we did that, I was sure we’d win the game. That was the case.”
