Tyler ready to finalise realise his Hatters promotion dream

HATTERS keeper Mark Tyler is looking forward to finalising the reason he joined Luton Town in the first place, writes Mark Wood.

Town are just one game away from booking a return to the Football League - the aim that drew Tyler to Kenilworth Road initially.

He said: “That’s the reason I came to this club, it’s a massive club. Mick Harford was trying to get me the year before they went down.

“I was reluctant because I’d never moved clubs. I was at Peterborough for 14 years so it was a bit of a strange thing.

“But then circumstances at Peterborough was a bit of a strange thing. I knew I wasn’t going to play in the last year of my contract and then I had the loan spell at Bury and I just got my appetite back for the club and to play football.

“So I said to Mick, yeah I know it’s in the Conference but Luton were a big team back then and I wanted to be part of hopefully getting them in the Football League.

“It hasn’t turned out yet. This is a massive club, look at the amount of fans we are taking to Wembley.

“Everyone says we don’t deserve to be in the Conference but that’s where we are at the moment.

“It’s taken a little while for the lads to realise. Especially the start of this season, and the end of this season, people have realised they are a big club but they are in the Conference.

“We’ve got to get ourselves out of it and earn that respect again going up into the League and if we can get promoted into League Two and show that we are a massive club in League Two.

“Then we’ve got to get ourselves out of that and into League One. And you’ve got to prove yourself again in League One.

“We are at the bottom at the moment and we’ve got to work out way up.”

Old foes York City stand in their way and any old friendships will be left behind on the day.

Tyler continued: “I know their keeper very well. We always have a chat and a handshake. But as soon as we get on the pitch its 90 minutes you want Luton Town to win and then you shake hands and stuff like that.

“I don’t get involved in that side of it. I just concentrate on my own game, chill out, and prepare myself in the same way as I do for a normal game.”

And he believes that new boss Paul Buckle has been the ‘breath of fresh air’ they all needed to realise a return to the Football League.

He said: “I think he has come in and spread his new ideas about the club.

“When we are on the training field it’s like we’re in a match. When we are doing certain things it’s got to be serious.

“He will soon kick you up the backside if you are laughing about or joking about, because what we do in training is for a match.

“He’s got us all together, we train with the youth team as well. He’s got the whole club involved with everything.

“He has just got us more organised and more aggressive with the way we do things now.

“I think we lacked that before the new gaffer came in really so it’s been a breath of fresh air.

“He has been with Torquay and obviously lost in the play-offs. His ideas in training are great. Everyone’s alive and buzzing and paying attention because they want to do well.

“Obviously everyone wants to be playing like in the big game Sunday.

“His ideas are great, the training is hard he upped our fitness levels and I think it’s shown in the last eight games we’ve played.

“We’ve been on top for 90 per cent of them and showed our determination not to lose the game at Wrexham.

“If you asked me two months ago before he came in if we had played that second half at Wrexham we would have buckled with 20 minutes to go.

“That’s my opinion. But we’ve got a steel about us now, we are aggressive everyone knows what we are doing in the box when we are defending and if it’s their man (that scores) they will get hammered in the dressing room.

“The gaffer doesn’t take any prisoners which is great. I think the young lads are, not fearful of him, but I think they do have the fear factor.

“The gaffer knows they can do well but it’s the other side of the coin where we need to dig in like at Wrexham, show our mental stuff and be aggressive that’s probably the main reason that’s changed our fortunes around in the last eight games.”

Despite Buckle’s relative youth Tyler believes he is one of the best managers he has played under.

On whether he had been suprised by Buckle’s impact, he added: “No not really, because there’s a lot of good young managers about. I’ve been in the game a long time and to be fair he’s up there with one of the best managers I’ve had.

“He has new ideas, he’s enthusiastic, he always says play with a smile on your face and this is how I’ve known football throughout my career.

“There’s a few managers you disagree with what they do but you get on with it because you want to be in the side and play well.

“This is how I know football and it’s great that a club like Luton have got him to manage.”