Luton boss knew the significance of Coventry victory

Town chief lauds players as they defeat strugglers at Kenilworth Road
James Bree celebrates scoring a first senior goal during tonight's 2-0 win over Coventry CityJames Bree celebrates scoring a first senior goal during tonight's 2-0 win over Coventry City
James Bree celebrates scoring a first senior goal during tonight's 2-0 win over Coventry City

Luton boss Nathan Jones hailed tonight’s 2-0 victory over Coventry City as a ‘big win’ for his side.

The Hatters climbed to 13th in the table and 15 points clear of the bottom three to banish any minor worries of flirting with the relegation this term thanks to first half goals from James Bree and Elijah Adebayo’s penalty.

They could and should have added more to the tally in the second period, missing a host of excellent chances, with Ryan Tunnicliffe denied by a goal-line clearance, Sam Nombe failing to beat keeper Ben Wilson, as James Collins and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall both missed the target too.

However, Jones, who had seen Sky Blues striker Maxime Biamou fail to score from two glorious opportunities in the first half, knew the victory was all that mattered, saying: “It was really important we won the game today.

“We’ve had back-to-back defeats, albeit against the top two, but tonight was a much better performance.

“It was a bit open early on which we didn’t really want to happen, but we were clinical in terms of what we did.

“We should have scored more, should have gone further ahead first half and then second half, once we got over their initial burst where they played with a bit of freedom, we were pretty dominant and it should have been far, far more.

“That’s the only negative to come out of the game that we weren't a little bit more clinical, a little bit more comfortable in the game and Saturday was the same thing.

“But we’re evolving at this level and we’re a different side to what we were last year, totally different.

“We’re much more front footed, much more aggressive in our press, we go after people, we’ve created 20 shots tonight, seven on target which again is not a great ratio as we should have had more, but I’m just pleased with the win and the reaction that we got.

“We don't go three, four, five on the spin without winning, that’s the good thing about us, we bounce back.

“We’ve had two tough games and should have got something out of the Swansea game categorically, but we bounced back tonight and I'm very pleased as it's a big win, a real important win and we needed to do that.”