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Danny Hylton – Fronting Luton Town, the Football League’s high scorers
The season has been very successful so far, both for myself and Luton Town. The club strengthened well in the summer and made some really good signings after narrowly missing out in the play-offs last season. At times last term we were lacking a certain level of experience, so we brought in a few older heads, players who know and have been about the Football League.
We all wanted to achieve promotion and set that as the target at the beginning of the season – it is not something we are going to hide. We think with the squad that we have, we can achieve that. We have started the campaign really well and it seems the longer it goes on we are moving from strength to strength., while playing some really great football.
We have some fantastic individuals at the club, those with incredible ability. Not just goal scorers, but players with great technical qualities and athleticism. We score goals from everywhere and do not just rely on one person or the forwards. From set pieces we are especially a real danger. We are lucky to have goals throughout the team.
Every time I go onto the pitch I want to score, but it is not the be-all and end-all. If I am bringing something to the team and we are winning games, then I am happy. It is not about me or any other individual, but I am definitely aiming to beat last year’s tally of 27 goals in all competitions, this season.
Credit has to go down to our First Team Manager, Nathan Jones. Ever since I have come in he has been fantastic with me. He has filled me with confidence and now every time I go out onto the pitch I know he is 100% behind me.
As a team, our performances come down to the amount of work he does with us on the training ground, the runs he tells us forwards to make, the time he spends with the midfielders so they know what ball to play.
We work tirelessly on patterns of play and structure, so we know what each player is going to do with and without possession. I have never seen a manager coach like he does and he deserves a huge amount of praise.
On a personal level it is great to be the leading goal scorer in League Two. Although football it is not about the individual, it is nice when you know you are doing your job and things are going well.
I go out there every game and work hard, trying to bring as much to the team as I can. If I am playing well and creating, or helping the squad in any way then that is great. If I am scoring goals in doing so, then that is even better. When you are playing in a team with players of the quality that we have at Luton, then you are going to get chances to do just that.
Our Head of Sports Science, Jared Roberts-Smith, always reminds us that we score most regularly in the latter stages of games. He takes big pride in that. We have a great backroom team at Luton and Jared is fantastic at what he does.
He places a huge amount of emphasis on the team’s fitness and the work done in the gym. When you see that we score a lot of goals in the closing stages of games it is because we are a very fit and in great shape as a squad.
It is also down to the way opponents set themselves up. Typically, they make it difficult for us, playing defensively and trying to counter attack.
They make it hard for us to score in the first period and if we don’t get an early goal it makes the game more of a challenge. If we then grab a goal early after half-time, teams are forced to come out and attack more, which makes it easier to grab a second or third.
It is really difficult to single out a particular team performance this season, as we have had a few high scoring wins. However, our recent win over Swindon, against a really good team, stands out.
At the County Ground they made it really hard for us, packing their half with 11 men. It took us until the second half to get one goal, but then in quick succession we managed to score four more. It is really pleasing to see that.
Ultimately, we have a great squad at Luton, not just the boys who are starting. When we make changes we are able to take the game away from people. We have fantastic ability coming off the bench, which gives us a different dimension and can help to take us to a new level.
When I got promoted last with Oxford we thought that we were by-far the best team in the league. However, sometimes we were a bit complacent, turning up and just expecting to be given three points. We ended up coming second that year, securing promotion on the last day of the season and it was not quite as comfortable as we would have wanted it to be.
This year we definitely won’t be taking anything for granted or taking our foot off the pedal. You have to go out there and fight for every point and we will definitely be doing that after being so close last year. We drew 17 games in total and if we could have turned just a few of those into wins then we might have gone up automatically.
It just goes to show the fine margins come the end of the season. We are only at the halfway point of the domestic campaign and anything can happen still. It is a bit of a cliché, but we need to take the second half of the campaign one game at a time.
Before this week, no-one in the team has really spoken about our upcoming FA Cup tie with Newcastle United. We have real tunnel vision on the league at present, taking each match as it comes. It will be a nice day out and a great tie at St. James’ Park, a huge stadium with lots of home support. The atmosphere should be fantastic.
We will go there and give them a good game. We can test ourselves against their big name players and really see how far we have come, as well as how far off the level we are now. However, we won’t be going there to get a draw or a replay. We will be going there to try and win and hopefully add to our goal tally.