Assistant boss Paul Trollope admits there is talk of Luton’s lofty league position within the camp but only because they want to cement themselves in the Championship play-off places and continue correcting their home form when Stoke City visits tomorrow.
Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Cardiff, courtesy of Elijah Adebayo’s late winner, was only Town’s fourth win all season at Kenilworth Road, but it saw them leapfrog arch-rivals Watford into fourth place on goal difference behind Middlesbrough with a game in hand.
While much of that is down to eight wins out of 14 on the road, in just ten games at the helm Trollope, fellow assistant Richie Kyle and manager Rob Edwards have been behind 50 per cent of those victories at Kenilworth Road.
But with seven draws and three defeats, Trollope said of Town’s home discomforts: “We’ve been a little bit frustrated, especially going two up against West Brom and some of the goals we conceded that day, we weren’t really at our best.
“So, the home form is going to be important, the home crowd is going to be important, we’re in good form away from home, so the players know where we are.
“We do speak about it, we do speak about the position we’re in, we do want to shoot for the stars, we want to be brave and we want to make sure we attack every game and the next game’s a home game.
“So it’s a two-way thing with the home form. We understand we have to start with a tempo and intensity to engage the crowd and then to engage us and then hopefully if we can start the way we finished the other night, it can be a positive afternoon for us.”
“We’re pleased with the run of results we’ve been on. Obviously, we came into the club in a good place, we’ve tried to move it on, we’re ambitious as a club, ambitious as a group of players, a management staff, but we also know, we have a lot of respect for the division.
“We know how tight the games are, a lot of humility, the way we work, our energy, our attitude and our endeavour, has to be spot on every week, so far it has been. So, we will just continue, it’s a cliche, but take it a game at a time, make sure we hit the levels we know we can and try to keep improving as the season goes on and see where it takes us.”
Town will hope it’s a better performance against Stoke than November’s 2-0 defeat at the Bet365 Stadium, which they slumped to under the shadow of Nathan Jones’ imminent departure to Premier League Southampton.
And as another motivation, the new management team have the chance to mastermind a first win at home to the Potters in 23 years.
Trollope said: “They’ve got an experienced manager (Alex Neil) who knows his way around the division, has had success in the division, big football club, got some good players, they’ve added well in the window, so again, another tough Championship game, one at home that we want to follow up and make sure that we attack it in the right way/
“We will be respectful of the opposition as always, but we want to make sure we really focus on us, focus on what we do well, focus on our processes, look at things from the other night we need to improve, but go in a confident and positive frame of mind.”
Stoke lost centre back Harry Souttar to Leicester in a £15million transfer deadline day switch, but brought in Bournemouth midfielder Ben Pearson and Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe.
Trollope said: “They’ve added to what is a strong squad. They’ve got a good Championship manager so we’re fully aware of them.
“We know what to expect and Souttar going will be a blow for them. They’ve played a back three and a back four in recent weeks. We’ll be ready for every eventuality and we’ll give them a lot of respect, be aware of what they do but very much go into it with a positive mindset, looking for another win.”
In the run-up to kick-off, Luton will assess the fitness of defender Dan Potts and new loan signing Marvelous Nakambe, who joined for the rest of the season from Aston Villa.
