Club

NATHAN JONES ON TRYING TO ACHIEVE PROMOTION AND WINNING THE FAMILY CLUB OF THE YEAR AWARD

Town boss Nathan Jones said in his press conference at The Brache this afternoon that he is aware of what other results this weekend could mean for his team, but is focused solely on his own side's performance, as well as praising the club for picking up the League Two Family Club of the Year award.

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The award comes on the back of a number of initiatives set out by the club at the beginning of the season, including Family Fun Days, with the Hatters having another one prior to the game against Crewe this Saturday.

Jones said: "Any award for the work the club does in the community and with families we're very proud of. The football side gets mentioned good or bad plenty.

"But there's fine work that gets done all the time off the pitch at our club that we're very proud of, and it's a wonderful achievement."

The Hatters will look to build on their winning run of two consecutive games with a victory this weekend over the Railwaymen. Wins over Mansfield and Yeovil have kept the Town within touching distance of the league leaders Accrington Stanley. The 3-0 win at Huish Park on Saturday saw Danny Hylton withdrawn just before half-time, with Alan McCormack also taken out of the action to prevent either being suspended for any of the remaining fixtures.

"I don't think Danny did a hell of a lot wrong at the weekend," the Welshman continued.

"I brought him off for my sanity and his own, so we didn't have any issues this week. He's a pantomime villain and people love to have a go at him. People have done far worse than that. The thing is, he's Danny Hylton. You see people celebrating and putting their finger to their lips.

"He gets stick Danny, and he rams it down people's throats. He doesn't shy away from it [getting stick]. If he doesn't thrive on it, then he's a good actor. The way the game was going there were going to be incidents in it.

"With Alan McCormack, I was fearing he might get a second yellow and he nearly did. He beat his man clean and the guy took him out, and how a free-kick wasn't given I don't know. If the free-kick wasn't given, people might think 'did he dive?'. But he was cleaned out, so the way the game was going we wanted to get out of there, the game was done at half-time. We were 3-0 up and they were down to nine men. Without being disrespectful, it would have taken some performance to come back from that.

"So we wanted to come out of the game unscathed – no injuries, no suspensions and we did that. That's why we made those decisions with Danny and with Alan McCormack, just avoid any controversy, see the game out and move on."

Town could potentially be promoted as early as midweek next week depending on results, but the gaffer wants to see his side remain focused with four league fixtures remaining of the campaign.

He said: "A lot of things can happen and we are aware of those because people tell us. We understand who is playing each other this weekend, but we know mathematically we can be caught by a minimum of three or four teams.

"So what we have got to do is take that out of the equation. The only way to do is that is by winning our games. If others slip up, others slip up. We're focused on what we're doing.

"We're in good form at the moment and we want to continue that form because we want to finish strong and we have not just one goal, but an end goal of what we want to achieve and until that's not possible, then the other one comes into play. To get the job done, we know we have got to win football games and we're right on it."

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