Ogbene happy that 'opinions don't play the game' for Luton as the Hatters aim to prove their doubters wrong

Attacker Chiedozie Ogbene has declared the best thing for Luton is that ‘opinions don’t play the game’ as the Hatters look to prove their Premier League doubters wrong this season.

Going into the campaign, Town were everyone’s instant favourites to be relegated, many stating Derby County’s lowest points tally of 11 was in danger of being beaten too.

After four straight defeats, Rob Edwards’ side then picked up a first point when drawing against Wolves at Kenilworth Road, before adding an opening win at Everton.

Another two losses followed to Burnley and Spurs, while not many would have given Town any hope at Nottingham Forest on Saturday when trailing 2-0 with just seven minutes to go.

However, Ogbene crashed home his first ever goal in the top flight to reduce the deficit and then substitute Elijah Adebayo ensured the visitors left with a 2-2 draw thanks to his brilliant stoppage time leveller.

Speaking afterwards, the summer signing from Rotherham had a message for any remaining naysayers towards the Hatters’ ability to remain in the top flight, saying: “The best thing about football is that opinions don’t play the game for us.

“People will give their opinions, but we know how we train.

"We work on things like this so we can control our destiny, so it doesn’t really matter, but when we train we know it’s between us, no-one can do it for us.

"We have that kind of bond in the dressing room, the most important thing is everyone is on the same page.

"We know what league we’re in is going to be difficult, but we promised each other we’re going to dig deep no matter what and that’s what I believe is going to be the difference for us this year.

“It comes from the manager but it also comes from the players we sign.

"We're all good people, we're all fighting for the same cause.

"No-one’s bigger than anyone here, so it’s a great year for us to prove our doubters wrong.”

Town’s fighting spirit reared its head again once more at City Ground as Ogbene revealed that it was a predicament the Hatters had planned and prepared for during pre-season.

Knowing the highest tier of English football would represent the toughest standard almost all of them had experienced before, the Republic of Ireland international continued: “We showed great character, 2-0 down it was difficult for us as we know only two teams have come here in the last 19 games and got a win.

“The players have self belief and it’s something that we always practise.

"We knew coming into this Premier League that we're not going to be the favourites, there’ll be times that we’ll be dominated, so in the pre-season we did train for these sorts of positions, to keep going.

"The manager installed that into us earlier in the season, so that it won’t be a shock to us when we’re in this position.

"We weren’t thinking of scoring two goals, just thinking of getting the first one and see what happens, that’s what we were aiming for and we were fortunate enough to get one.

"We just dug deep, the manager made some attacking changes just to give us some extra legs up top but the ball came in the box, I took my chance and I think that lifted the team a little bit more.

"We created enough chances to score at least one goal before that, but overall I’m just delighted with the team’s character and how we never gave up until the end.”

Midfielder Ross Barkley was also thrilled to see his team-mate up and running for the Hatters, adding: “Chieo as been great, he was due a goal and he got that goal.”