Town chief felt bold game-changing decisions paid off for the Hatters during Bluebirds victory

Luton boss Nathan Jones felt the bold decisions made by both himself and his coaching staff paid off handsomely during last night’s 2-1 win at Cardiff City.

With the scores goalless at half time and defender Reece Burke having suffered a head injury during the opening 45 minutes after landing heavily following an aerial challenge, Jones brought on winger Fred Onyedinma for his first minutes of the season, moving to wingback with James Bree dropping into the back three.

Within a few minutes the move had worked wonders, Onyedinma beating on-loan Everton full back Niels Nkounkou and reaching the byline before crossing for Luke Freeman to volley home his first goal in Luton colours.

With Freeman on a harsh yellow for an earlier challenge, Jones then brought on Gabe Osho for the summer signing moments later, the substitute also on target just six minutes after his introduction with his maiden Town goal when converting Bree’s terrific free kick.

The fact that Onyedinma was up against a Premier League youngster who is still learning his career, hadn’t had any influence on Jones’ decision though, as he wanted his team to get at their opponents, the manager saying: “It’s not that, Fred can do that to anyone regardless, no matter who he is.

“The boy’s athletic, if I came up against Fred Onyedinma I’d be that deep I’d have been in the stand, so it’s not that.

“He (Burke) just had a bang on the head and we felt like we didn’t want to risk anything.

“It’s what do we do? Do we put Gabe on and just kept Bree where he was, but we didn’t, we went really bold and aggressive.

“We were very happy with going aggressive, so it was a tactical decision in the end, but it was made all the easier by the fact that he had a knock.

“We thought we’d tuck Bree in to defend, and really be aggressive marking and then Fred to give us something really different and it was brilliant.

“We chatted, my coaching staff and myself, it wasn’t just my decision, it was was the coaching staff who said, ‘be bold we’re better when we’re bold, we make bold decisions, when we’re safe we’re not quite as good.’

“We’ve shown that tonight, we’ve made positive changes, bringing Gabe on, pushing Clicker (Jordan Clark) on, because Luke Freeman is on a booking, a wrong booking.

"Then Cauley Woodrow, Bez (Luke Berry) has come on and Cauley Woodrow was excellent when he came on, secured the game for us.

“I’m really delighted as this is a tough place to come, they’ve shown they’re a fluent side.

“I watched them against Birmingham here and they were very good and we’ve shown we’re a good side.”