It has been more than a week since Luton Town last played a game of football but I still can’t stop myself from looking at the Championship table where the Hatters currently sit third.
That is third place. In the Championship.
To put it another way we are currently the 23rd highest placed side in English football, higher than West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City, Swansea City and Sheffield United, each of whom have graced the Premier League in the last few seasons.
There are plenty of other former Premier League teams that we are sat above but I used those as examples because they are either receiving parachute payments or have just finished being the beneficiaries of them, so to be above them is remarkable.
This whole season has been remarkable. I had an inkling that we could achieve something special this term. I was really excited about the players that were brought in during the summer and if they gelled like they have then we were always going to be better than last season and considerably so, but to be third in the table after 38 matches, I’d be lying if I said I expected that or saw that coming.
But is this season such a surprise? I’ve interviewed a number of the Town squad for the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust podcast this season and almost to a man they have told me that their aim is to finish in the top six.
Throughout the campaign there have been statistics measuring us as a top six side. No team has more clean sheets in the division this season while no side have picked up more points than us in 2022 other than runaway leaders Fulham. Expected goals totals have had us in the top five for much of the year as well.
All that is all well and good though. We are operating on the third lowest budget in the Championship and nine years ago on this very day we weren’t even in the top three of the Conference so what we are achieving this season is incredible.
Such is the momentum that we took into the international break, rather than worrying about making the play-offs, some could be forgiven for wondering if we can chase Bournemouth down and bypass the end of season lottery altogether.
That might be a dream too far, but in a season of unlikely dreams coming true who is to say what can and can’t be done? One thing is for sure, whatever happens from here on in this has been an astonishing year.
It could still be the year the Premier League dream becomes a reality and that is something quite extraordinary!
