James Collins on powering Luton Town towards second successive promotion: 'Luckily I’m the striker that gets all the glory'

Luton Town's James Collins celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game during the Sky Bet League One match at the Wham Stadium, Accrington
James Collins (R) has scored 23 goals this season Credit: PA

Every successful season has a defining moment and for Luton Town it came in the depths of winter, when the players were at their lowest ebb. The departure to Stoke City of Nathan Jones, the manager who had guided them to promotion from League Two in the previous campaign, had come as a shock, and there was little time to contemplate what might happen next.

“It did come out of the blue,” says James Collins, their striker and the League One player of the season. “We played Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup and we had a few days off because we didn’t have a game until the following week. When we came back in, he had spoken to Stoke. The majority of the lads were gutted, myself included.”

Still reeling from the loss of Jones in early January, Luton faced a formidable trip to play a Sunderland side who had lost only once in the league since mid-September. The subsequent 1-1 draw was far from being their most spectacular performance of the season, but it was a result that provided a moment of realisation and self-understanding for those at the club.

“After that game at Sunderland, where we got a draw up there and 7,000 fans followed us up, that was the moment we knew we could keep going,” says Collins. “We knew we could really achieve something, even with Nathan gone.”

Three months later, Luton are on the brink of a second successive promotion, sitting two points clear at the top of League One with three games remaining. They face AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night and could go up this weekend if results go their way. It has been a remarkable season, made all the more impressive by their form since the departure of the ambitious, demanding Jones.

In Jones’s place now stands Mick Harford, the former journeyman striker in his second spell as Luton manager. The 60-year-old is the interim this time, rather than a permanent replacement for Jones, but the fact that Luton have lost only once in the league since he took over is testament to the way he has maintained the team’s momentum.

Harford has tried to downplay his impact on Luton’s rise this year. In his own words, he has “just kept things ticking over”. The modesty is endearing but there can be no denying that Harford’s fingerprints are all over Luton’s success, not least because, as the head of recruitment before Jones’s departure, he had helped to identity and sign many of their players.

“I think he is doing himself a bit of a disservice,” says Collins. “He has had big decisions to make along the way. He has given us a freedom to go out and play, to express ourselves. He has kept the same formation as before and the majority of the same personnel, but it has been more than just overseeing it.

“He knows what works for us and he knows what type of player we have in the squad. He knew what we were all good at, and that we did not have to change too much.

“The squad did not change, nothing changed. We kept the same regimes. We quickly realised we could be successful. He was always in and around the training ground, even when Nathan was here. All the lads were really familiar and fond of him before he got the job anyway.” Harford’s role cannot be underestimated, and neither can the part Collins has played in their push up the table. The 28-year-old has scored 23 times this season, more than any other player in the division, and has played so well that he received a call up to the Republic of Ireland squad earlier this year. 

“There are some lads that have gone unnoticed in the team this year but luckily I’m the striker that gets all the glory and the headlines,” Collins says.

The positive headlines are particularly welcome for a player who was previously better known for being banned from British racecourses after he was seen, alongside then-MK Dons midfielder Samir Carruthers, appearing to relieve himself on a balcony at the Cheltenham Festival in 2016. “I’m a bit older now, more mature,” Collins says. “There is a sense of maturity but it’s also a case of enjoying your football as well.”

The excitement at Luton extends beyond their near-inevitable promotion. There is a wider sense of purpose at the club, who have been given planning permission to build a much-needed new stadium, and it has not gone unnoticed that two of the three players who have been shortlisted for this year’s EFL Young Player of the Year award (James Justin and Norwich City’s Max Aarons) are graduates of the Luton academy.

The mood is upbeat, and the future certainly looks brighter than it did 10 years ago when Luton, under Harford’s management, were relegated from the Football League having started the campaign with a 30-point deduction for paying agents via a third party and failing to satisfy insolvency rules. 

A decade later, only a meltdown will stop them returning to the Championship for the first time since 2007. 

“The lads have been doing it all year, we’ve been under pressure all year,” says Collins. “I can’t see anything changing now.”

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