Town boss felt Hatters fully deserved to end an almost 50-year wait for victory at Deepdale

Luton chief Nathan Jones felt his side were fully deserving of their first win at Preston North End since January 1972 following this afternoon’s 1-0 triumph.

Town’s 12 previous visits since Alan Slough’s strike settled a Division Two contest almost 50 years ago had seen the Hatters lose nine, on a run of eight successive defeats as well.

However, under Jones, Luton are becoming accustomed to ending such sequences, as they had done at Nottingham Forest last month, as they left it late once more, an own goal from keeper Daniel Iversen proving the difference.

The Hatters chief said: “I didn’t know that stat, we’re not trying to change history, we’re trying to make sure we establish ourselves as a Championship side and make sure we keep climbing the league, so I’m delighted with that.

“The first half was lacklustre, I felt if we had a bit more quality we could have created a lot more, but second half we picked it up slightly and I thought we deserved the win.

“I didn't think they were getting through at any part of the game, I felt if we stepped it up a little bit the game was there to be won, without being disrespectful in any way.

“We lacked a little bit of tempo, lacked a little bit of quality if we just had that first half then it could have been a different story, but we did do that second half.

“We stepped it up a little bit, I felt we were the better side, not massively, but felt we edged a real right game and being the away side that’s a good performance from us as it’s a tough place to come.”

After the break, Luton were always the team who looked the more likely to win, which they did thanks to Iversen diverting in James Collins’ cross-shot which is expected to go down as an own goal rather than the forward’s 11th of the season.

Jones added: “I felt we were making the running a little bit, Ched Evans was probably the main threat in terms of his physicality, but I felt we were the better side.

“Once we had a bit more quality and a bit more zest about us, then we were a lot better and we looked like we could win.

“We made substitutions to win the game, we made three very positive substitutions and I’m absolutely delighted for James.

“We were edging it, making the running, making their back four work slightly harder than ours and it just needed a little bit more quality.

“Pelly-Ruddock provided a wonderful ball and after we did score, we might have had one or two more as well.

“(Sam) Nombe’s clean in, Kiernan (Dewsbury-Hall) if he (Jordan Clark) just played the ball earlier he’d have been clean in on the counter attack.

“So it was a real, real hard-fought and deserved win and we’re delighted with that.”