Jones looking for another away day victory when the Hatters head to Stoke

Luton boss Nathan Jones is looking to carry on his side’s decent away form when they head to his former club Stoke City this afternoon.

Since the turn of the year Town have won twice in the league, both on the road and both 1-0, at Bournemouth and Birmingham City, taking six points from a possible 12, as opposed to just one out of the nine available at Kenilworth Road.

They now go to a Potters team who ended a six-match run without a home success in midweek when defeating Sheffield Wednesday 1-0, although Michael O'Neill's side are still seven points adrift of the play-offs after a disappointing run of form, as Jones said: “Our away record isn’t too bad, we know that.

"Moving forward, we need to address everything, as we want to keep moving forward and progressing but we're not going to suddenly turn into the most free flowing Championship side overnight while still improving in all aspects.

"We have to find ways to improve constantly, week in week out, and push boundaries like we all want to do, but we have to do that steadily and not try to think we’ll be something that we’re not.

"Yes we want to score more goals, but we also want to continue picking up points and wins as we’ve won two of the last four away games and have gone to some real difficult places to be fair, so we’re not in disastrous form away from home.”

Town have now accumulated 37 points from their opening 29 games this term, which has them sitting 15th in the table, and nine points clear of the relegation zone.

Last season saw Barnsley stay up with 49 points and on whether he had a number in mind that was needed to avoid the drop this term, Jones continued: “No, not really. Historically, it’s been anything from 45 to 51 points, but you never know in a tight league.

“But we’re not looking at that, we want to get to as many points as we possibly can.

"I think we might be a minimum 13 points better off than this time last year.

“If we pick up exactly the same amount of points from this time to the end of the season, we’ll be in a very, very good place.

“That’s got to be our goal, really, to pick up the same amount of points that we picked up from this stage last year.”

The difference between the two seasons is quite dramatic, with the Hatters already 13 points better off than they were at the same stage last term, as they were sitting six points adrift of safety already.

Jones added: “It’s all progress, and that’s the thing we like to do.

"So, if we progress from where we were last year, we’ll have no worries about what you’ve previously mentioned (relegation).

"We don’t mention that here and we’ll have made strides moving forward, however big that is.

“But what we have to do is make sure we make progress, to be fair to the previous manager, I’m not taking all the credit, because they had started to turn the corner, prior to my appointment and all I did was continue that and move on.

“This year, we’ve just made sure that we’re not thinking about those things.

"We started very well and got points on the board early, nine after four games, which is really very good.

"It should’ve been ten really, we had nine out of the first 12 so we put ourselves in a decent position without having to play catch-up.

“Then, realistically, we’ve been a little bit inconsistent at times and, to be honest, not got what we’ve deserved in a lot.

"So, if we had another four or five points, that would probably be a true reflection.

“If you’re on 42 points now at this stage, there’s only one place you’re looking at that’s top six, and we wouldn’t be far off.

“That’s probably where we believe we should be, but we have to prove that.

"So, we’ve got to make sure we get as many points as we can this month, see where we are and reassess.”