Nathan Jones is relishing tomorrow’s Leeds clash, because it’s a fixture he’d promised Luton would be playing when he first joined Town back in League Two.
Town travel to Elland Road off the back of a 1-0 away-day triumph at Swansea on Saturday, which narrowed the gap to safety to three points and lifted them off the foot of the table.
Leeds registered a resounding 3-0 victory over fifth-placed Fulham at the weekend, which moved them back to the top of the table, with an eight-point buffer in their bid for automatic promotion.
The Hatters’ last trip to face the Whites in the league was back in 2007, when the two teams were in the third tier. But you’d have to go back to 1961 for the last time Town won at Elland Road in the league.
Jones, who is unbeaten in his second spell as Luton boss, is under no illusion about the scale of the task tomorrow night.
“Leeds is the most difficult place to go in the Championship. For me, they are the most difficult side to play against. It’s going to be great test, but what a wonderful test,” the Luton boss said.
“When I came here (we were) 18th in League Two. When we came here with everyone getting onboard, we said we would be a Championship side and it was to go up against Leeds United. That’s brilliant for us.”
United will be the third promotion-chasing team in a row that Jones has had to prepare for since his return to the hotseat, a bid to mastermind a great escape.
Despite already cutting the gap to safety in half, he believes his side have had one of the toughest starts in the Championship, since the Coronavirus suspension of football.
“We’ve got some big games coming up,” Jones said, adding: “It’s the toughest of starts. Apart from Brentford, we’ve probably got the toughest of starts, but we’ve embraced it. We haven’t cried about it, we haven’t been scared about it, so it’s moving in the right direction.
“Four points in two games, I would’ve taken that all day long and now we go to Leeds to try to add to that.
“It’s work, work, work at the minute, and it’s an intense month, but we’re fully prepared for that.”
The Leeds clash will be the third game in ten days for Town, but Jones believes a draw and a win in his first two games will help negate any tired legs.
Jones said: “It’s far better when you’ve had a win, to go to Elland Road. If you go to Elland Road on the back of two negative results then the tiredness sets in, and suddenly the ball becomes a little bit less round and Leeds become stronger. It’s not the case now. We’re in good shape.”
An ardent life long 70year old fan of Luton, I was relishing watching the last nine games on iFollow having surrendered my Season Ticket to do so. But so far I missed most of the game against PNE, and the Swans Game was very patchy. This service e is so bad I am appalled, but not surprised, that the EFL have enjoined with this Mickey Mouse Company, who fail to answer all my emails with anything other than pre-scripted responses telling me how to sign on, and what I cannot use to stream the Service. The Facebook commentary during the PNE game shows my experience was far from unique. I hope Luton is receiving appropriate compensation for the bad press and poor support