Jones promises 'braver' Luton will look to play on the front foot more this season

Hatters boss Nathan Jones has promised that his side will look to be on the front foot much more this term.

The Town chief ensured Luton stayed up last season after making his side exceptionally hard to beat once lockdown ended, losing just one game on their way to Championship survival.

Under Jones, Hatters picked up four wins and four draws in their other eight matches, scoring 11 goals and conceding just six, while on the road they were a particularly tough opponent, with three wins from four, including a 1-1 draw at champions Leeds, keeping three clean sheets.

However, during the 3-1 Carabao win over Norwich City at the weekend, there looked to be a slightly more expansive style to Town's game, particularly once Jordan Cook came on, something Jones has been putting in place during pre-season training.

He said: “We needed to get results after lockdown, we needed to make sure we were solid and secure, so we worked on something for a long time.

“But on Saturday we’ve been a little bit more on the front foot in terms of closing down, being braver to go after a team and that’s just the work we’ve done in pre-season.

“We knew we had to be strong in certain situations, we had the worst defensive record, had the worst goal difference coming out of lockdown, and we knew we had to address that to make sure that one goal was enough to get points on the board, whether it was one or three.

“Now we’ve got to try and step that on a bit, be a little bit braver in possession, a little bit more higher with our press and that's a work in progress.

“We won’t be a finished article, you look at Leeds and (Marcelo) Bielsa for example, he's had two years to work and get his team how he wants.

“We did work prior (during Jones' first spell in charge), but now we’re in a different shape and a different league and a different level.

"So we’ve had to do that work in pre-season, but we’ve done it and we are evolving now as a team and getting better week in week out.”

Those thoughts were echoed by keeper James Shea, who added: “I don’t think anyone cared how we played at the end of the season as long as we picked up the points,

“But at the start of the season you want to put down the foundations of hopefully playing well, get a few goals, and hopefully keep some clean sheets too."