Luton aim to consolidate play-off place as they take on fourth place Huddersfield

Luton Town look to get back to winning ways against Huddersfield Town, with both sides gunning for a top-six spot in the Championship run-in.

Both sides enter this contest aware of the consequences if they fail to pick up all three points, with the likes of Sheffield United, Blackburn and Middlesbrough all lurking, ready to take their place.

However, April has not been a kind month to the Hatters, drawing to both Millwall and bottom of the table Peterborough United in recent weeks, making Monday’s clash all the more important for Nathan Jones’ side. 

Luton have nevertheless shocked critics with their meteoric rise up the table this campaign. Their impressive away record places them as the fifth-best team on the road, picking up 29 points on their travels ahead of their trip up north. 

The Terriers will be hoping to bring such a run to a halt with Carlos Corberán’s men looking unrecognisable from last year’s 20th place finish. The West Yorkshire side already has 17 more points than they did by the end of last season and have shown little signs of slowing down just yet. 

After five games on the road, Huddersfield welcomes a return home where they will be aiming for a first victory at the John Smith’s Stadium since early March, where three points would extend their lead on seventh place to six points with just five games to play.

Team News

For the hosts, Huddersfield will be without the services of Matty Pearson due to picking up a knee injury in training. This season, the defender has been a key figure for the Terriers, playing 37 times in the league and scoring three goals. Carlos Corberán will have duo Danny Ward and Jonathan Hoog back available after recovering from illness. 

Luton were handed another injury worry last week with the early departure of Cameron Jerome in the 1-1 draw against Peterborough. Gabriel Osho, Reece Burke and keeper Jed Steer remain out of contention, with James Shea expected to be the man in between the sticks.

Views from the managers

Carlos Corberán

The Huddersfield head coach has highlighted the challenge his team faces against a competitive Luton side.

“First of all, we know it’s a game of three points but of course when you watch the table it’s a game between two teams that are competing very well in our positions in the table, so it means that the difficulty, the competitiveness of the game is going to be high.

“Luton play in a way where you need to compete very well regardless if you want to try and take something away from the game.”

Nathan Jones

Following his side’s draw against Peterborough, Jones looked ahead at Luton’s upcoming matches against Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest.

“We’ve got two wonderful games coming up because if you come out of that on the right side and you’re in a wonderful position. If you don’t, then you’ve got it all to do. 

“Look, it’s a lot of games, six games to go and I said you just got to get to a points tally, it doesn’t matter which games you do it in but if you can do it in certain games, it’s doubly beneficial.”

Head-to-Head

A bore draw was the story of these two teams’ last meeting back in October. In fact, nothing has separated the two sides in their previous three meetings, with 1-1 draws in both games last campaign – Huddersfield coming from behind in both matches to share the points.

While the Terriers have the better head-to-head record overall with 12 wins to Luton’s nine, Huddersfield have not beaten Monday’s opponents since 2008 in a 1-0 win in League One. Now is the perfect opportunity to change this.

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