Luton will face one of the Championship’s top marksman, when Brentford come to town this afternoon, but manager Nathan Jones recognises that Ivan Toney is just one of “a number of threats.”
The striker was swapped Peterborough for west London in the summer as a replacement for 25-goal Ollie Watkins, who left from Aston Villa.
And Toney has already been filling the boots of his predecessor, with eight goals this term.
The Hatters have only scored seven in total, though sit two places and two points above Brentford, who have lost as many as they’ve won this term after losing in the play-off final last term.
Asked about Toney, Jones said: “He was at Newcastle and he’s had a number of loan moves, found a home at Peterborough, did really well and is now doing very well again.
“(Forest) have Lyle Taylor who was, in League One, prolific. The week before we come up against (Steven) Fletcher of Stoke. Every team in this division has got a top, top player, realistically.
“We’ve come up against him but it’s only now that he’s hit the heights he’s hitting and he’s proving to be a fantastic striker.
“Brentford are a top side, as Luton found out last year. It’s not just that threat, it’s a number of threats.”
Town had wildly mixed fortunes against Brentford last term, both under previous boss Graeme Jones, who presided over a 7-0 defeat at Griffin Park and then a 2-1 win at Kenilworth Road.
Jones knows his men will face a challenging afternoon, but said: “Can you name me an easy game in the Championship? No, so it’s going to be tough whatever we have. If it’s Brentford, Rotherham away, Huddersfield, Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke the week before.
“There are a lot of ex-Premier League clubs and we’re competing with those and they’re all going to be tough. We have to be at our best, that’s why we have to use our squad, we have to be structurally good, we have to be dominant when we can, take our opportunities, defend well, all the good things we’ve got to do, but we’ve got to do them on a relentless basis, that’s the problem.
“It will water down quality eventually. Thankfully, there’s an international break coming up, so we’ve got three more games, hopefully pick up a good amount of games and then we can deflate slightly and recoup, because, at the minute, there’s a dangerous amount of games coming up.
“We’ve got a lot of people coming back swell. James Bree, Dan Potts, James Collins came back (on Wednesday Night), Harry Cornick is due to come back. We’ve got a good, strong squad. Luke Berry got rested (against Forest), so there’s a real desire to do well and there’s a real good squad there. We’re going to need that.”
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