After weeks of transfer speculation and reported interest from Championship side West Brom that disrupted his game time in pre-season, manager Nathan Jones delayed the introduction of Jack Stacey to the Town starting line-up until Saturday.
The right-back’s first full 90 minutes since the end of last term came in the 1-1 draw with Sunderland, and after a good performance against the Black Cats, the 22-year-old is adamant that his sole intention is playing for the Hatters.
He told iFollow Hatters: “For me, I was always focussed on playing for Luton. The deal was happening above my head, it was between the two clubs. It was nice to hear the interest, but I’m fully focussed on playing for Luton Town.
“I hope I can go forward with the club, I think there was interest in a lot of our players because of how well we did last season, so it’s just natural. But my focus is on Luton.”
Stacey came straight into side in place of James Justin on Saturday and enjoyed a good start in what was a well contested encounter with Sunderland. The defender was pleased with the performance which meant the points were shared.
“I think neither us or Sunderland can have any complaints about the result,” said the ex-Reading man. “It’s nice to come up a division. Obviously we played Portsmouth last week and Sunderland this week who are two big teams, and I think we more than matched them. I think the three points will start coming soon.
“The manager said after the game, we’ve shown now there is nothing to fear in this league. Obviously, we have to respect teams and it is a quality jump up, but we think we’re able to deal with that and we have nothing to fear. We can go on and beat teams now.
“I think it was an even contest, they had some good play, but we did. But I think that’s just the jump up in quality. You can’t give teams one or two chances because they’ll punish you and they showed that in the first half.
“We want to make Kenilworth Road a fortress like last year, so to not lose and snatch the draw, we’re very happy with that.”
The former Exeter loanee is also happy to play in many more big matches across the season in Sky Bet League One.
The bulk of the promotion-winning squad has remained with the Hatters along with Stacey to make sure that the club is pushing at the right end of the table come the end of the season.
He added: “We’ve been thrown in at the deep end, but I think so far we’ve proved ourselves. I think everyone that has come to the club in the last two years, this is the reason, to be able to play in League One. No-one came to stay in League Two.
“We talked a lot last season how we’re ready for League One, now we just have to go out and show it.”