Last week it was confirmed that striker Danny Hylton had left the club at the end of his contract to join Northampton Town, bringing to an end a superb six-year spell that began in League Two and ended in the Championship play-offs.
With medicals and pre-season training starting with his new club last week, it wasn’t possible to get Danny’s thoughts and reflections on the end of a Hatters career that brought 62 goals in 170 appearances, personal accolades from the PFA, EFL and club, back-to-back promotions, the Great Escape and a Champiionship play-off.
So early yesterday, he came back to Kenilworth Road for what proved to be an emotional farewell interview at the side of the pitch the holds so many memories for Super Dan and us all.
The full interview is available on iFollow by clicking the image above, and on YouTube at the foot of this page, but here are some of the highlights…
On leaving Luton and joining Northampton…
“It has been weird to be fair. I didn’t think it would be so hard leaving a football club. It has been but that’s a credit to the football club and the people at the football club. The messages and stuff like that have been unbelievable. I’ve had messages from everybody so it has been really nice. It has been emotional but weird, because when you have been somewhere for so long, it is weird leaving, but I’m settling in okay at Northampton. It has been a good first week there.”
On signing for the Hatters in 2016 along with Oxford team-mate Johnny Mullins…
“Everyone says the same thing. You speak to the gaffer here and once he gets you on the phone or in the meeting, you’re sold. That is kind of what happened. I spoke to him and made a decision to leave Oxford. He then rang me and said, ‘What’s Johnny like?’ In my mind I wanted to say rubbish! But I thought if I big him up here, there’s a chance he can come with me! Johnny ended up coming and it was brilliant, it made it easy to settle in because it’s not easy going somewhere new, settling in and meeting new a bunch of new people, so it was nice to have Johnny there with me and before too long, he started running the changing room and running the place, so it was nice to be his little side-kick I suppose.”
The litter-picker red card against Doncaster…
“I thought the guy was obstructing me or he was fouling me. He wasn’t even trying to play the ball and the red mist came over. I lost my bearings for five seconds or so. I don’t know what the litter picker was doing down there – and I’ve never seen one around the pitch since. I just threw it nowhere near the linesman, although it probably deserved a second yellow. But I couldn’t believe the reaction I got after that. I thought ‘What have I done? I’m going to get in trouble for this. But then my song starts getting sung around the stadium and I thought ‘Jesus, this lot will do for me’. It probably helped that I scored a hat-trick a few games before that. From that moment I thought this is a great place, because not many clubs would sing your song after you’ve just been sent off.”
On his partnership with James Collins…
“I think he will tell you the same. When Collo came in, the season before I scored quite a few goals and Collo was a goalscorer, so there was two of us and we both wanted to be top goalscorer and we both wanted to score. But it was never to the detriment of the team where we wouldn’t pass to each other or anything like that. We are probably both greedy and if we got in front of goal we would both shoot. Collo is a fantastic player and an even better human being. He’s a great, great guy and I really enjoyed playing with him. We pushed each other every day and at the end of the season, it ended in promotion, which is what we set out to achieve.”
On the knee-slide after Olly Lee’s goal against Cambridge…
“I just remember Olly scoring and I was so excited that he’d scored, and literally I couldn’t tell you what came over me, I just made a beeline for the goalkeeper. What I actually first thought was that he could have played me in because I was on the left side, and then when he shot I thought ‘That’s going in, but if it comes off the post, I’m going to follow that in and hopefully get a tap in’. Once I’d started running, it was too late to stop then so I thought I’d knee slide. I remember the keeper kicked me and it really hurt. I got in the car after the game with my missus and kids, and she was so angry with me. She said ‘What were you doing?’ I was all delighted because I’d scored in a game that we’d won, but she gave me a telling off in the car and put a bit of a downer on it for me. It was a fun moment. I apologised to the Cambridge keeper, but the Luton fans loved it and it’s a moment they still talk about now.”
On Mick Harford and the League One title…
“Mick until the end of the season was brilliant. He didn’t have to change much. He just left it to us players, because what Nathan did was, he worked so diligently on our team, we had our schedule and knew what we had to do. Mick just kept that rolling and he led us when he needed to, and we all have so much respect for Mick that we weren’t going to let the gaffer’s departure be an excuse for us to not go and get promoted. We owed it to him, we owed it to Mick and we owed it to ourselves. So we did that and it was a great end to the season – one that I thought we thoroughly deserved.”
On the fans even when he wasn’t playing and Nathan Jones’ return…
“My relationship with the fans was always brilliant. Obviously the goals and the promotions, being part of that helps. But from day one they took to me. When you hear your song sung, it’s unbelievable, it’s so nice. I thank them for that. Then Nathan came back and I managed to get back involved. We wouldn’t have stayed up with anyone else. He just knew us as a group, the club, he’s the best man for Luton. I don’t think anyone else probably on the planet would have kept us in the league, but he did.”
On his first Championship goal at Bristol City…
“It was a bit of a slow time because of injuries and it was hard to get back into rhythm as the team was doing so well, so it was tough. Personally it was nice to get a first Championship goal as it was something that I always wanted to do, but to contribute to the team, it got us a draw that day, got us a result, so it was good. The fans were brilliant that day, but personally it was nice to get that duck off my back, if that is the saying? It was nice, I could relax a little bit.”
On the winning goal against Derby in front of the Kenny…
“I probably didn’t appreciate it enough at the time because you’re in the game, but there’s a couple of nice angles on the goal, and a nice one from behind the goal (at the Oak Road End), as I’m shooting, even before the ball goes in, you can see the crowd go up and it was a really nice moment and again, it’s not about me, it’s about the team winning the game and taking a step towards something we wanted to achieve and we believed we could achieve.”
On playing in the Championship play-offs…
“I thought it was written, ‘I’m going to score at Wembley, I’m going to be in the Premier League!' Which is unbelievable’. But the highest that Luton have been in their recent history and being part of that, being involved in that was lovely. I used to watch the Championship play-offs and think what an unbelievable occasion that is, and just never even dreamed I would play in that or get to that level. So to do that was amazing, but gutted that we didn’t do it as against Huddersfield. Obviously I’m biased, but I thought we deserved it. You're that close and if we’d had scored it would have been a completely different game, but we gave it everything and we just fell short."
On Nathan Jones and Luton Town…
“He’s brilliant, I’ve spoken to him, I’ve said what I need to say to him, so I won’t go into it all. He’s a fantastic guy, but away from him, it’s a club with brilliant people, the club has got amazing people, so I won’t say too much about him.”
On facing the Hatters for Northampton on July 16th…
“I’m going to fake an injury that day! I either don’t play in it, or do something outrageous, give everybody what they want, I don’t know. I’ll think of something on the day. Do you know what, it will be so nice to see everyone again, because I haven’t seen people like Si (physio Simon Parsell) and the lads since I left. As long as we don’t go and lose the game 6-0, because that won’t be very good, it will be nice. There’s a few people I’ve got on my list I want to kick! I’m looking forward to it.”
And a final message for the fans…
“Just thank you, thank you for the last six years. It’s been great. Yeah, that’s it.”
Thank YOU, Super Dan!