Jones felt Town showed their 'great character' by bouncing back twice against Millwall

Hatters boss Nathan Jones watches on against Millwall

Luton boss Nathan Jones felt his side’s ability to bounce back twice in their 2-2 draw with Millwall on Saturday showed the kind of character that his squad possess.

Town fell behind to Tom Bradshaw’s goal on 25 minutes, the first time they have conceded first on home soil since December 11 some 10 games ago, before swiftly levelling through Elijah Adebayo’s 16th goal of the season just eight minutes later.

It looked like the Lions would steal the points when they took the lead once more late on, Benik Afobe clinically finishing off a counter attack, only for visiting skipper Jake Cooper to divert Robert Snodgrass’s free kick into his own net with three to go.

Although Amari’i Bell went close to a stoppage time winner, the spoil were shared, as Jones said: “It just reiterates we’ve got great character.

“We’ve shown we've got great character, we can go toe-to-toe with people, we can go away and win, we can be decimated by injuries and we can win, we can be punished, all those things happen and they show character as they want to do something.

“Strikers claim everything and it was an own goal, it’s tough because I’d prefer Elijah to get it but it’s one of those things.

“But I don’t care who scored and it was probably what we deserved really, in the end it was a good point.

“With seven games to go we’re right in the mix, two points away with a game in hand on Huddersfield.

"We've got to go to them next week, it’s a wonderful position to be in and we’re really happy.

“There’s a long way to go but it shows we’ve got character, shows we’ve got energy, shows we’ve got certain characteristics that you need to do well in the Championship and we are doing well.”

With Bournemouth’s win over Bristol City virtually putting any faint automatic promotion hopes that Luton might still have had to bed, the Cherries now eight points clear with two games in hand, Jones was quick to point how crucial the equaliser was to keep fellow top six chasers Millwall at arm’s length.

It meant the Lions remain six points behind the Hatters, both sides now having seven fixtures left to complete, as Jones added: “Not letting them have three, that was a big thing, so it’s a good point in the end in the context of everything.

“I remember nine games after coming back from Covid, we drew, we played people like Barnsley here and people said ‘we’ve got to win those games.’

“No we didn’t, we’ve just got to get to a points tally.

“If we get to a points tally we achieve our goal and we did that by winning the games we had to win and then not losing the games that we could lose.

"We did that, we only lost one, so if we can have that end, if we go away and pick up points and pick up wins, we’re in a decent position.”