Bradley praises 'fantastic' Sluga for not 'going under' during tough start to his Luton career

Luton keeper Simon Sluga earned high praise from club captain Sonny Bradley for the manner in which he turned his season around at Kenilworth Road.

The 27-year-old Croatian international became the club’s record signing just a few weeks before the campaign started, and was then thrown into the side for their opening game against Middlesbrough, his first taste of English football.

Although he made some superb saves during the opening few months of the campaign, there were some costly and high profile errors too, none more so than at Derby County, when he was badly at fault for both goals in a 2-0 defeat.

That saw him lose his place, James Shea preferred for the next 11 games, before he returned over Christmas, and went on to play the final 20 matches of the season, becoming one of the main reasons Town stayed up.

He managed to keep six clean sheets in that time too, with a starring role against both Leeds United and Barnsley once lockdown had ended, as Bradley said: “Simon ended the season in really good form.

“It was really difficult for him at the start, and to be honest, halfway through the season, a couple of mistakes and he could have easily gone under and shied away from the challenge, but that’s not what he’s about.

“I know Simon well enough now to know that he’s a really, really good character and I think he’s a fantastic goalkeeper.

“Going into this season, the first games he’s approached them when he's been slightly nervous, slightly tentative and that's understandable, it's a tough division and there's a lot of pressure on him.

“At times, defensively, we didn't help him. In certain games we allowed too much pressure on him and too many shots on goal and when you allow too many shots on goal, and too much pressure, some of them are likely to go in.

“He knows he made mistakes in games which is not him and he’s proven that now.

“He could have shied away, but that’s not what he’s about and I’m really proud of Simon for the way he’s been throughout the season and we want that form to continue going into next season.”

It wasn’t just Sluga who improved, but the defence as a whole did as after conceding 65 goals in their opening 30 games, they were then just breached a further 17 times in their final 16 matches, including a 5-0 reverse to Reading.

The signing of Spurs defender Cameron Carter-Vickers clearly helped, as Luton were far more solid in the final third of the campaign, but picking the ball out of the net 82 times in total was still far too much for Bradley, as he said: “We’ve improved, I still think we conceded too many goals, even from the restart.

“Going into next season I don’t want us to concede goals like that.

“I don’t want to be conceding five at any time, but it’s not just the defence that can take credit, I think it’s the whole team.

"All of the defensive structure, we’ve been really good in our discipline.”

With Town playing nine games in the final 33 days of the season and barely any time to iron out issues at the training ground, they were able to look a far more solid outfit, particularly on the road.

Swansea, Huddersfield and Hull were all shut out, Hatters conceding just once, that at champions Leeds United, as Bradley added: “We did slight tweaks, but we didn't really have enough time to change too much.

“A manager like Nathan (Jones) who goes into a lot of detail, it would have been hard for him to come in and do certain things.

“He’s pretty much kept it the way it was, tweaked a few things.

"We were lucky to get Harty (Paul Hart) back in as well as Harty’s experience that he’s got.

"He worked with us defensively, on our set-pieces as well and just that little bit of added experience really helped.”