Jones proud of Luton’s gritty win at Coventry

Posted Sunday, December 16, 2018 by PA

Luton Town manager Darren Jones expressed his delight as his side extended their winning run to six league games with a 2-1 victory over Coventry City.

Matthew Pearson’s second goal of the season and James Collins’ second-half strike saw Luton reduce the deficit to League One leaders Portsmouth to four points, and Jones hailed his teams display.

“I thought we were excellent. For an away team to come here, a difficult place – I thought we were excellent.

“We’ve scored two, Harry Cornick had a great chance and we had other little chances but I thought we managed the game fantastically well.

“It was a real good away performance. In the conditions, and it was horrific conditions here, we’ve had to really dig in and once again we showed we have that steely side to us and I’m very pleased.

“It was a difficult game – it wasn’t a real open encounter with fantastic football. We knew we had to do all the basics right in terms of defending our box, in terms of defending set-plays and pressing well.

“I thought we did that really, really well and we limited them. They’re a good footballing side and they weren’t able to get into any rhythm.”

The nature of the game could have been different had Jordy Hiwula’s 18th minute effort been judged to have crossed the line, but the Luton manager believes the officials made the correct decision.

“We’ve seen it and it’s not over. The linesman was good there, it’s difficult to see anyway but we’ve watched the videos and it’s not over.”

Whilst Jones thought Hiwula’s effort had not crossed the line, Coventry boss Mark Robins held a contrasting opinion as he was left to bemoan his sides disappointing performance.

“The first half we’ve had a goal not given which was over the line by a yard, so we can look at that and think we were a bit unlucky, but we weren’t unlucky today we got beat by the better team.

“I’ve seen it on the video, the keeper has fallen in the back of the goal and it’s landed in his lap over the line by a yard. To my knowledge, that’s a goal.

“One-nil up changes the dynamic of any game, we were OK but not great. Too many performed under par and I think that the weather had an impact on everybody.”

Robins was effusive in his praise for the Hatters, and believes the team have all the key ingredients to maintain their promotion push throughout the season.

“They’re a good side, they’ve got competent players in every position.

“They’re also playing a decent brand of football, for instance, first touch takes them beyond our lines.

“What they do out of possession is phenomenal because the work rate is really high and that’s a sign of a team that’ll be at the top of the division.”