Potts believes Hatters' magnificent unbeaten run can be a big factor when heading to the Stadium of Light

Town defender Dan Potts believes his side’s fantastic run of form is a massive boost heading into the play-offs against Sunderland this weekend, especially with the first leg at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

The Hatters finished the regular season by going 14 matches unbeaten, the same as they did in the 1981-82 campaign in which they won promotion to the top flight.

In fact, their only loss in the last 20 fixtures has been a 1-0 defeat to champions Burnley, meaning they are 13 without losing on the road, including wins at Sheffield United, Rotherham United and Birmingham City, also drawing with Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers and Millwall.

It was enough to see Town finish third in the table, assured of their position in the top six for a good month, whereas the Black Cats only reached it on the final day by winning 3-0 at Preston, leapfrogging Millwall, who let a 3-1 lead slip to lose 4-3 to Blackburn Rovers.

It means Tony Mowbray’s side are on a nine match unbeaten sequences themselves, with four wins in six, but Potts insists Luton’s consistency is a huge factor, as he said: “Most people say you want to go into the play-offs on a run, and then you’re sneaking in, like we did last year when we got in at the end.

"But we’ve been on a run, we’ve lost one game in 20, that’s as hell of a run.

"To go into the play-offs, knowing you've only lost one game in 20 games, that’s a big thing, especially when the first leg’s away, so if we can come back here with something.

“We’re fully aware of the run that we’ve been on.

"Most meetings we’ve had and pre-match and post match talks we have had that has come up.

“It’s in the back of most people’s minds going into games, 14, it’s a great run, it is a great run.

“It’s not often you know where you’re going to finish with three games to play.

"The manager and his staff have had the luxury of using five subs in three games and really utilising the squad, so it can only benefit us going into the play-offs.”

Town’s latest game that saw them break 80 points at this level for the first time since that promotion season some 40-plus years ago, was on Saturday when they were held to a goalless draw by Hull City.

In a contest that won’t last long in the memory, Luton making eight changes to keep their star names fresh for the trip to Wearside, Potts knew it would be hard for those selected to gel in a match situation.

He continued: “For myself personally I just wanted to get out there and play.

"They had nothing to play for, we had maybe one eye on the play-offs, making sure everyone could get through, as the last thing you want to do is get injured in these games.

"We wanted to try and get minutes into players, wanted to rest players, we made eight changes, a team that had never played together was never going to be free-flowing.

"But the main thing was try to keep the unbeaten run going, clean sheet, you can take positives from it and I’m sure the manager will.

“We prepare every game the same way, every team has a different style, but now it will be just preparing for Sunderland.

"We were focused on Hull and now we’ve got a bit of time to really focus on Sunderland.

"I’m sure the manager and the staff will be straight to work, looking at their game, but for us, nothing really changes too much in terms of how we want to play and how we want to go about our game."

With Potts getting his first 90 minutes since January, it meant that Luton’s injury worries, particularly defensively, have cleared up, as Gabe Osho and Reece Burke featured for a half as well, both coming through unscathed.

It leave the Hatters in a terrific position ahead of the two-legged semi-final, something they didn’t have at this stage last term, when they could barely raise a team to take on Huddersfield, eventually being beaten 2-1 on aggregate.

The centre half added: “It’s not often we’ve had just the one injury.

"You look at last year, we had a fair few going into this crucial part of the season and bar Cauley (Woodrow), who’s still got a chance to be back as well, we’re in good health, so it can only be a positive.

“Myself, Gabe, Burkey, Sonny’s (Bradley) come back from a long term injury, he’s had to play a few games on the spin, but it looks like everyone’s put that behind us and recovered from what probably were bad injuries, not just niggles.

"Everyone’s recovered and that’s a testament to the other lads who have done everything they can to be ready for this part of the season.

“It’s two games in three, four days and then you’ve got 10 days to the final,

"We’re going in pretty much 100 percent, there’s options there.

"You look at last year, second leg we were scrambling to get a bench, so we’re in a good position and I just can’t wait.”