Lockyer determined to do all he can to stay in the Hatters first team

Town defender Tom Lockyer makes a challenge against Chelsea recently

Luton defender Tom Lockyer isn’t taking anything for granted despite his lengthy run in the Town starting 11 recently.

After joining on a free from Charlton Athletic in the summer, the Wales international didn’t start any of Hatters' first six Championship games.

He made his first appearance in the 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday on October 24, beginning three matches in a row, but was out again following the 3-0 defeat to Brentford, spending the next five fixtures on the bench, coming on just twice.

Lockyer admitted his period out of the side had been the toughest of his career to date, but after starting the 3-1 win over Norwich, he has now played 12 successive league games, producing some top performances at the heart of the Hatters defence.

However, he isn’t getting ahead of himself, saying: “I just love football, I love playing football, so I’m buzzing that I’m back in the team.

“I’m going to do all I can to try and stay in the team, so that’s doing well and limiting my mistakes to as least as I can, giving my all to the team which I’ll always do and long may it continue.

“But I know football’s never as easy as that, you never know what’s around the corner, so I’m going to do my best to stay in the team.”

Lockyer has been alongside club captain Sonny Bradley for the majority of Town's recent dozen matches, and he has been impressed with the partnership that the pair are forming.

They almost kept out a Blackburn Rovers side containing the division’s leading scorer Adam Armstrong for 90 minutes on Saturday, only for the striker to take advantage of a quick drop-ball to net a controversial winner.

Lockyer continued: “I thought he (Bradley) was excellent, he handled Armstrong really well, I told him that at half time and after the game.

“I thought he did magnificently, but we’re starting to understand each other’s games a lot more now, and that only helps, especially in defence.

“We’ve had a talk and set ourselves a clean sheet target for this season and I’m just really gutted we couldn’t add one to that today.”