Hatters boss: Celebrations after win in Wales meant so much

Luton chief Nathan Jones felt that the celebrations following the 1-0 win at Swansea City on Tuesday night showed just how much the victory meant to both him and his side.

After Harry Cornick scored the only goal of the game with 18 minutes to go, the Hatters saw the rest of the match out with confidence to make it five wins from their last eight games in the Championship.

Following the full time whistle, Jones himself hurdled the hoardings to go and enjoy the result with the 300 or so Hatters fans who had made the lengthy trip to Wales, and had witnessed their side move up to ninth in the table, now just three points shy of the play-offs.

Speaking about the scenes, Jones said: “One-nil away, you’d rather be three of four-nil up, so you can relax a little bit, but the manner and they way they were, the way we celebrated, for me, meant so much.

“It was no disrespect in terms of over celebrating for myself or anyone, it just meant so much. That was our game in hand.

“We’ve had four games in hand, four games called off, which was Reading, Bristol City, Swansea and then Coventry and, at the minute, we’ve won three out of three.

“It shows that we’ve really gone after these games and I’m really pleased, because it’s put us in a really good position."

With Luton's players prepared to do what it took to ensure they came away with the three points, Jones was eager to praise the attitude on display from his players throughout.

He continued: "If you want to achieve anything you have to have it, unless you’re an individual.

"So if you’re an archer or you’re an individual swimmer and you have to do something then fine, but if you’re in a team sport you need that.

"If you don’t have that togetherness, that camaraderie, that humility and that desire to work hard, that character, then you won’t achieve anything, and we have that in abundance here.

"We went with a gameplan, regardless of what anyone else and I mean anyone else said, that was good a tactical performance as we’ve had.

"They had one really good chance in the first half, but then I thought we were excellent.

"We controlled the game, albeit it out of possession, we were never stretched, they played in front of us, we pressed, we broke, and on another day we could have had more.

"Harry’s had some little one-on-ones, first half we’ve had opportunities and I really enjoyed our performance, really enjoyed the energy which we played with, the way we went after them as we didn’t sit in, we just went after everything for 90 minutes and that’s a wonderful, wonderful thing to do when you go away.

"So I’m really proud of that performance, it epitomises everything we’re about.

"In possession we could have been a little bit more fluent, but when I’ve asked them to do anything, and I asked them to do that the other night and they repaid me in abundance, so I’m really pleased for that."

The Hatters are now 22 points clear of the bottom three with 18 games to go, all but mathematically assuring themselves of another season in the second tier at the very least.

That remains the starting aim every term for Jones too, who added: "Without being coy, the first thing we have to concentrate on every year is making sure we retain our status.

"Once we retain our status, then we push boundaries.

“Our ambition is not to stay in the league, but we have to make sure we do that, that platform, because if you start bouncing around and reaching for the stars you can fall down a hole.

“What we do is fill in those holes every year, so there are no holes and that’s where we are now.

“Realistically, we probably have enough points now to keep us up, so it’s about how far can we push?

“I don’t mean that in a negative or non-ambitious way, but with the resources we have, and until we get the stadium, that has to be our primary focus and then can we kick on, so we’ve done that.”