This Is What Luton Town Have To Do To Retain Their Championship Status

Is it really as difficult as some would have us believe?

With no Championship football today, courtesy of it being the 4th round of the FA Cup, a competition Luton Town bowed out of at the 3rd round stage, courtesy of a loss away to Bournemouth, I decided to take a close look at our current predicament that sees the Hatters footed to the bottom of the table.

On Tuesday evening, the Hatters welcome Derby County, to Kenilworth Road in a fixture that sees the Hatters desperately needing to get back to winning ways.

Currently, the Hatters are bottom of the table having amassed a mere 21 points from the 28 games they’ve played. They sit some 8 points adrift of safety with Huddersfield fourth from bottom with 29 points.

But, with 18 games, what kind of points total would the Hatters need to retain their Championship status?

Well, if we go back to last season, the 2018 / 2019 season, Millwall finished fourth from bottom with 44 points, with Rotherham United, Bolton Wanderers and Ipswich Town dropping into League One.

The previous season, Bolton Wanderers, albeit temporarily escaped relegation by finishing fourth from bottom with 43 points, a point fewer than Millwall attained the following season.

Therefore, if 44 points is seen as the safety net, it leaves Luton Town needing 23 points from those 18 remaining games, a huge challenge but is it really an impossible one?

But, if we simplify it, it is just 7 wins and 2 draws, meaning, if the lads can achieve that we could readily accept, although it hurts every time we lose, 9 defeats.

Of course, there are other ways of escaping the drop, but the fewer games we win less than 7 means having to draw more games.

But, is it something we can do?

Looking at the fixtures remaining:

• Derby (h)
• West Brom (a)
• Cardiff (h)
• Sheffield Wednesday (h)
• Middlesbrough (a)
• Charlton (a)
• Brentford (h)
• Stoke City (h)
• Wigan (a)
• Preston North End (h)
• Swansea (a)
• Leeds United (a)
• Reading (h)
• Barnsley (h)
• Huddersfield (a)
• QPR (h)
• Hull (a)
• Blackburn Rovers (h)

You can see we have 10 home games left and 8 away games left.

If you look at it that way, then survival isn’t mission impossible. We just need to, as Graeme Jones keeps saying, take our chances, cut out the defensive mistakes and not fade after 60 minutes.

Then, just maybe, we may have stumbled upon a recipe for survival, well at least for another season!

But, in your opinion, is it achievable?

Please feel free to air your views in the comment facility beneath this article.