‘Chills’ are multiplying for Doughty over the prospect of playing at the Etihad and Old Trafford for Luton

​Town wingback Alfie Doughty admitted he is getting ‘chills’ in the knowledge that he will be playing at some of the biggest and best grounds in English football next season.

The Hatters’ 6-5 penalty shoot-out victory over Coventry City in the Championship play-off final at Wembley last month elevated Luton back into the top flight for the first time since the 1991-92 campaign.

It means they can now look forward to a campaign where they will head to Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool to name just four, when the new term kicks off on August 12.

Doughty, who played 31 league games in his first season with the Hatters, four more than he had managed in his last two seasons at Stoke and Cardiff, said: “You don’t know actually how to put it into words, I might still be in shock that next year I’m going to be playing at the Etihad, Old Trafford, so for that itself just gives you chills.

“I’m still kind of processing it really, I’ve never been involved in something like this.

“Obviously when you were younger and battling for stuff, but this is just on another level.

“For someone like me suffering so much recently with injuries and not playing, to do this, this season, I can’t put it into words really.”

When asked what he felt Town’s success was down to this season, Doughty was quick to point to the team spirit that is in place at Kenilworth Road.

He continued: “You have to see it for yourself to realise it.

“I’ve been in a few groups and there’s always some sort of animosity somewhere, or whatever, but this group, it is just all love and that’s probably about 75 percent of the reason we got promoted this year.

“We’re a team, we actually love it, we love each other and we’ve got to do it.”

That bond the players possess is something that Doughty believes will set them up well for a battle to stay in the top flight next term, saying: “It’s quite funny really, but the Premier League is another level.

“I go back to this team and what we’re capable of and as a whole, this is what we do.

“It’s a football game at the end of the day, you’ve always got to set goals and this was one of them for sure for this club.

“I think we more than achieved this year and I personally believe we could have actually got automatic.

“If you look back at some of the games we drew, lost, we did well, but at Wembley, you can’t really beat it can you, Wembley, the final, what an occasion.”