Hatters chief ready to fight on three fronts

The Hatters begin a crucial period starting at Morecambe this afternoon, before entertaining Portsmouth on Tuesday night and visiting Exeter City next weekend.

Town then entertain Solihull Moors in the FA Cup and visit Swindon Town in the Checkatrade Trophy, as Jones said: “It’s an important seven weeks, because on three fronts we’re looking to compete and looking to do well.

“It will be a difficult game against Solihull, I watched them on Tuesday night, then Swindon away, who we think they’ve changed manager, we don’t know.

“But it’s an important period, we take that game by game as we never look forward too far.

“If we come out of December in a real position, similar to what we are, hopefully better but still in both cups it will be a fantastic time and we’ll really look forward to that second half.”

With Hatters currently in fifth place, when asked if he had set a points target for the run-up to Christmas, Jones continued: “I don’t think you can, we’d like two points per game, but we’re a little bit behind that at the minute.

“So we have to pick up. Carlisle and Plymouth set off at a blistering pace, sooner or later you think that might have to change.

“If it doesn’t then we’ll have to step up our efforts, but in terms of everything, I’m happy with where we are.

“We need to come out of November and December in real, real good shape and I think once we do that, it will be an interesting second half.”

Luton start with a trip to the Globe Arena this afternoon and on the test of Morecambe, who have struggled at home this season winning twice, but losing their last four, Jones added: “They’re a real dangerous side, contrasting form home and away, but a dangerous side.

“They’ve got good players, good individuals. When I was at Brighton I went to watch Yeovil, as I was watching a player who was playing for Yeovil at the time for Brighton and they played Morecambe.

“They were 2-0 down at half time, came out and won 4-2, because how they play. They had a good footballers who can play, we see them as a dangerous side and we’ll treat them like that.”

The Shrimps might have lost Tom Barkhuizen to Preston North End recently, but still have one striker in particular who will make himself a threat, Kevin Ellison.

When asked about the experienced frontman, Jones believes Hatters have a player in their ranks who can be just as much of a handful, adding: “Definitely, but Danny (Hylton) doesn’t just make himself a nuisance to the opposition, he makes himself a nuisance to every human he comes into contact with.

“We know of Kevin Ellison’s strength, know of (Cole) Stockon’s threat. We did know of the Barkhuizen threat until he left, but we’ve just got to make sure that Luton Town are right at it.”