Luton's aim is to 'shoot for the stars' after climbing up to fourth in the Championship

Luton assistant Paul Trollope insisted the Hatters are determined to ‘shoot for the stars’ once more this season as they hunt a second successive crack at the Championship play-offs.

The Hatters came so close to the Premier League last season, knocked out 2-1 on aggregate by Huddersfield in the semi-final, but have recovered from that disappointment impressively.

Despite losing manager Nathan Jones to Southampton in November, five wins from six under new boss Rob Edwards has seen Town up to fourth following Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory over Cardiff.

They can improve that even further to third this afternoon if they can beat Stoke on home soil for the first time since February 2000, a run of seven games, and Middlesbrough fail to beat Blackpool at home.

Trollope wasn’t shy in detailing the club’s ambitions for the final half of the season either, especially if they can improve a record at Kenilworth Road that has seen them win just four games all season, although two out of three since the new management team took over.

He said: “It’s nice to win, we’ve been a little bit frustrated, especially going two up against West Brom and some of the goals we conceded that day, we weren’t really at our best.

"So the home form is going to be important, the home crowd is going to be important.

"We’re in good form away from home, so the players know where we are, we do speak about it, we do speak about the position we’re in.

"We do want to shoot for the stars, we want to be brave and we want to make sure we attack every game.

"The next game’s a home game, so it’s a two way thing with the home form.

"We understand we have to start with a tempo and intensity to engage the crowd and then to engage us and then hopefully if we can start the way we finished the other night, it can be a positive afternoon for us.”

Although Edwards was beaten on his first game at Middlesbrough, Town’s form has been a revelation since, scoring 12 goals in the process as Norwich, QPR, Huddersfield, Wigan and Cardiff have now all been defeated,

Trollope added: “We’re pleased with the run of results we’ve been on.

"Obviously we came into the club in a good place, we’ve tried to move it on, we’re ambitious as a club, ambitious as a group of players, a management staff.

"But we also have a lot of respect for the division, we know how tight the games are, a lot of humility, the way we work, our energy, our attitude and our endeavour, has to be spot on every week.

"So far it has been, so we will just continue.

"It’s a cliche, but take it a game at a time, make sure we hit the levels we know we can and try to keep improving as the season goes on and see where it takes us.”