Hatters legend Harford insists Town can 'intimidate' Premier League sides at Kenilworth Road

Chief recruitment officer Mick Harford isn’t fussed about Luton having the smallest ground in the Premier League, as he insists the Hatters will look to ‘intimidate’ opposing sides at Kenilworth Road this season.

The Town legend knows full well how big a plus playing in the tight confines at LU4 can be in the top flight, part of a Luton side who achieved their best ever finish of seventh in Division One back in the 1986-87 campaign.

The Hatters used the vociferous backing from their just over 10,000 capacity home to full effect against fierce rivals Watford last season, earning a 2-0 success, the same scoreline recorded in the play-off semi-final second leg victory over Sunderland as well, when the noise levels went through the roof.

It clearly boosted the Hatters’ players when a much-changed Luton side ran Chelsea close the year before, only losing their FA Cup fifth round tie 3-2, and with that in mind, speaking about a first ever season in the Premier League on Sky Sports at the first Ashes Test in Edgbaston this week, Harford said: “Brighton away, great game, however many tickets we can get, the Luton end will be full and they’ll be behind the team as they do normally.

"So a really, really big challenge, but something we're looking forward to.

"The way I look at it is we've got Kenilworth Road.

"We get 10, 11 thousand in there, we're re-configuring it, it will be a massive, massive advantage to us.

"The other teams can have their sixty, fifty thousand and all that, we've got Kenilworth Road, we can build an atmosphere in there and hopefully intimidate some teams.”

Harford was showing his support for the Bob Willis Fund in Birmingham, with the Saturday of the Test marked as a ‘Blue for Bob’ day, raising funds for prostate cancer, a disease which claimed the life of the former England bowler and Sky Sports commentator in December 2019 at the age of 70.

The ex-Hatters striker was himself diagnosed back in December 2020, as he was quick to praise the Luton family for their help in helping him battle the illness, saying: “I'm in a good place.

"I’ve had a lot of support especially from the Luton Town community and the Luton Town fans

“They’ve been amazing to me, I've just come here to support Lauren (Clark) and the Bob Willis Fund.

"We're trying to raise as much money as we can.”

Meanwhile, going into more depth recently about just how he is doing health-wise, Harford added: “Where I stand at the moment my PSA numbers are really good.

"I carry on with my medication until December and that will be my three year course complete.

"They will sit me down with a plan going forward and hopefully it will be really good news.

"I feel really good. I’ve changed my lifestyle, my diet, everything.

"Where we are now, the position of the football club and being around the players on a daily basis I get great inspiration from them.

"They are a brilliant group of footballers and I just really enjoy being about them.”