Hatters boss insists he would be 'foolish' and 'an idiot' to underestimate the challenge of struggling Hull City

Luton boss Nathan Jones admits he would be ‘foolish’ to expect anything other than a bitterly difficult test when his side head to out of form Hull City for their Championship clash in front of the Sky cameras this evening.

With the Hatters in a good moment of their own, having won three and drawn two of their last six matches before the international break, the same can’t be said about the Tigers.

After starting promisingly, unbeaten in their opening four fixtures, including beating Norwich City and drawing at Burnley, things were looking rosy for Shota Arveladze’s much-changed side.

A 5-2 hammering at West Bromwich Albion was followed up by a 3-2 win over Coventry, but its all been downhill since then, with four successive defeats, including home reverses to Sheffield United and Stoke City, as the Tigers have been breached 11 times in four games, and unable to score in their last three.

It has seen them plummet down the table to sit in 20th, just one point above the relegation zone now, with Arveladze, who took over as Hull head coach shortly after Turkish owner Acun Ilicali bought the club in January, admitting to the Yorkshire Post he was under pressure already.

The former Rangers striker said: “I haven’t spoken to the owner.

“We are on a bad run and we aren’t in form. We need a good day to come back.

“I feel under pressure. I will talk to myself about the situation, but on this form it is no surprise at all.

“It is about what we can change. Whatever course is taken it is going to be what is best for the club that matters.”

That was of no concern to Jones though, even though he has fond memories of the MKM Stadium, Kazenga LuaLua scoring a late winner as Town stayed up in the 2019-20 season, and James Bree’s magnificent free-kick securing a 3-1 victory last term.

He said: “I see Hull as another tough Championship game, I’d be foolish to do anything other than that.

"Whatever they do, whatever strengths they have we know about.

"What they can bring, they’ve got a striker who’s the top scorer in the league, so it’s a tough place to go and a tough game.

"We’ve had to be really good to win, we’ve won the last two up there and I’d like to make that three, but it will be a totally different game to last year and a totally different one to when Grant McCann was in charge.

"So I see them only as a real tough Championship game and I’d be an idiot to say anything different.”

The Tigers had revamped their squad quite significantly in the summer after losing England U21 star and leading light Keane Lewis-Potter to Premier League Brentford for a report £16m, with Arveladze heading overseas for the majority of his business.

He splashed out £4m each on Ozan Tufan from Fenerbahce and Zorya's Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, also bringing in Oscar Estupinan from Vitoria Guimaraes, the Colombian leading the Championship’s goalscoring charts with seven goals, plus snapping up Adama Traore (Hataysport), Dogukan Sinik (Antalyaspor) and Benjamin Tetteh (Synot).

The Georgian did look closer to home when acquiring Fulham’s Jean Michaël Seri and Birmingham midfielder Ryan Woods, as Jones knows it is an impressive squad in place, as he continued: “Seri won the league last year with Fulham, Ryan Woods has been about the Championship for years and I had him at Stoke.

“They brought in a few foreign players with pedigree, Tufan, Estupinan, good players.

“(Jacob) Greaves was rumoured to be going for money, so they’ve got a good squad, they've spent money.

"We won’t underestimate them in any way, shape or form and we want to go there and just concentrate on us.

"We know what we have to do to maybe nullify Hull, but we want to impose ourselves.”

Keeping the ball out of the net has been the main problem for the Tigers, who have the worst defensive record in the league, shipping 21 goals in their opening 10 games.

Ex-Luton loanee Matt Ingram had the first nine matches, before being replaced by Chelsea loanee Nathan Baxter, who conceded three at Swansea last time out.

Jones said of the keeper, who turned out four times for Luton last season, including both legs of the play-off semi-final, when borrowed on an emergency loan: “He came in at a tough time for us, recovered from a really tough baptism in his first game (7-0 defeat to Fulham).

“He’s a lovely guy, a real good pro and he fitted in with everyone here so whenever we come across a friend of Luton Town, it’s always good.”

Meanwhile, a victory for the Hatters will see them shoot into the top six, sitting fifth ahead of the rest of the weekend schedule, which is something Jones is hoping for, adding: “That’s the way it is, the league is tight after 10 games.

"We don’t want to finish where we are (11th), you probably are where you are in terms of everything, we probably should have four more points but we keep saying that.

"There’ll come a point where we might nick a game we don’t deserve to nick, so I hope that happens in the near future so that everything evens out.

"But we’re in a decent place, we’ve got a very good squad, stronger than last year’s squad, similar points, similar goals, but we’re looking forward to this six week period to take us into another international break.”