Hatters skipper insists Luton learned their lessons by bulking up for promotion push

Town defender Sonny Bradley believes Luton have learned their lessons from last year’s play-off heartache by bulking up their squad this season.

Last year, after finishing sixth in the table, the Hatter went into the two-legged affair against Huddersfield barely able to put 11 fit players on the pitch, missing star striker Elijah Adebayo due to a hamstring injury, with the likes of Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Fred Onyedinma, Luke Berry and James Shea also absent.

It meant they drew 1-1 at Kenilworth Road, before a 1-0 defeat at the John Smith’s Stadium, ended dreams of a Wembley play-off final and a potential place in the Premier League.

Although Luton lost Kal Naismith in the summer, with Robert Snodgrass moving on, they broke their club record transfer fee to bring in Carlton Morris, also adding Cauley Woodrow, Luke Freeman and Alfie Doughty.

During the recent January transfer window, they saw James Bree and Harry Cornick move to Southampton and Bristol City respectively, but swooped to add Marvelous Nakamba and Cody Drameh on loan from Aston Villa and Leeds United, while young striker Joe Taylor also came in.

Bradley believes that kind of recruitment could prove vital in what he hopes his second time lucky this term, as he said: “This time last season we were suffering a little bit with injuries and when we went into the play-offs, we were probably a little bit light.

“That was due to the amount of games that certain players had to play.

“I think we’ve learned from that.

"We bulked the squad up and you can see today (against Rotherham) that I’ve come in, and Cauley Woodrow has come in, we’ve both put shifts in and are ready to go.

“You’ve got players now who are not playing that have got experience at this level.

"We’ve got Henri Lansbury on the bench, who we all know is a brilliant player, and played a lot, so that’s just credit to our squad.”

Bradley is one of those who has found himself out of the team in recent weeks due to the sheer quality of the performance from those ahead of him, Gabe Osho, Tom Lockyer and Amari’i Bell having been in sparkling form.

With Osho out and now Reece Burke missing too, there is every chance that the club captain, who started against Rotherham United on Saturday, will be called upon again for this evening’s trip to Reading.

He continued: “We train hard every single day and the manager speaks about it quite a lot, and it’s true – you have to be ready because these games are intense.

“Everything matters at the minute, every point matters, so you have to be ready to step up.

"Me and Cauley have come in today and I feel like we’ve done that.”

“Those boys have played a lot of football this season and it’s natural for us to pick up injuries and knocks and I think the manager can protect players as well.

“Last season, players had to play, because we didn’t have much more.

"Whereas now, even if it’s a slight knock, other players can step in and we can use the squad.”

Town attacker Woodrow, who like Bradley was back in for a rare start on Saturday, was quick to praise the defender’s performance after such a long time out of the side, as he said: “It’s the stage of the season where its been a lot of games, a lot of training and the lads are picking things up.

"It's good when players can step in, like Sonny at the weekend, he’s been out a long time, just put in and it was like he’d not been out at all.

"He did so well, so that’s all the lads can do.

"We’re a team, we’ve all got good attitudes, so one person comes out of the team, the next person can step in and do just as good a job, so we’re in a good place.

Town go to the Madejski Stadium on the back of an unbeaten run that stretched to 10 games following their triumph at the AESSEAL New York Stadium on Saturday.

The visitors picked up yet another clean sheet, their 19th of the season, which Bradley, who has now played his part in six of them, felt was one for the 2,000-plus supporters who had made the trip to South Yorkshire.

He said: “The boys have done excellently and a clean sheet is a pretty perfect day for us.

“It’s a great feeling (being back in front of the supporters), we’ve travelled well all season.

“At home we’re filling it at and we’ve come today and the end is full.

"They’ve sung for 90 minutes, they've got behind the team and they deserve that win, they deserve that clean sheet, just as much as us.

“From now until the end of the season I’m sure they’ll continue to travel well and at the Kenny, they’ll fill it out.

"If we are going to achieve our dream then we’re going to need them.”

After a quiet start, Town eventually proved too strong for their struggling hosts, scoring twice either side of half through Carlton Morris’s curler into the top corner and then Woodrow’s penalty rebound.

Bradley, who had a starring role in the centre of the back three alongside Lockyer and Burke added: “I felt like it was coming, I felt like the first 20 minutes was a big cagey and I feel like every time I’ve played here, that seems to be the case.

"You’ve got a team fighting to stay in the division, and you’ve got one team trying to get automatic promotion potentially, so a cagey 20 minutes but when it opened up, I feel like we were the team pushing forward, we were the team creating chances.

"They cleared one off the line before the goal, but Carlton, when he gets the ball in that area, to be honest, it looked a little bit soft the way it went in, but just the way it’s going at the minute.

"Against Blackpool we scored at the right time to equalise and today, we scored at the perfect time again, just before half time.

"It’s not only the dynamic of the game, but mentally for them, that’s a blow.

"I’ve been there in the past where it’s happened to my team, it’s a bit of a blow and then we come out in the second half and within a couple of minutes Cauley scored.

"After that, we dictated the tempo of the game, they haven’t really had too many chances and I feel like we deserved the win.”