Nathan Jones hails quality of players after Preston hammered at Kenilworth Road

Posted Thursday, March 17, 2022 by PA

Luton boss Nathan Jones hailed his side’s quality and desire as they hammered Preston 4-0 at Kenilworth Road to climb up to fifth in the Championship.

Luke Berry’s double and Fred Onyedinma’s close-range strike saw Town lead 3-0 at half-time, with Bambo Diaby then putting through his own goal just before the hour mark.

Jones said: “If Bournemouth don’t go up, if Fulham don’t go up, it’s a disaster for them.

“QPR have spent massive money, Sheffield United have spent massive money, we’ve got the lowest budget in the league, with nine games to go we’re riding the wave.

“I’m not going to get sacked if we don’t get promoted, but we want to try and achieve something and we believe we’re good enough to achieve something.

“Sides come here that are expected to be in and around it and we’ve been more than a match for them, and tonight, against a real good Preston side, let’s not forget that, but we’ve been excellent tonight.

“Now to maintain that constantly is difficult with a hectic schedule, and people are having to go through the absolute mire.

“But we’re just showing real, real resilience, real quality, but a desire to win football games and that’s wonderful, that’s what I’m so proud of.”

Berry had been left completely unmarked to sidefoot Town ahead after eight minutes, while Onyedinma made it 2-0 from James Bree’s free-kick after 28 minutes, the attacker only just on as a substitute for the injured Reece Burke.

Luton had a third three minutes before half-time, Berry doing wonderfully to divert Harry Cornick’s cross in. With 59 gone, Amari’i Bell’s drive was parried against Diaby by keeper Daniel Iversen, the rebound flying into the net.

Preston’s best chance came when Josh Murphy fired wide from 10 yards out.

Manager Ryan Lowe admitted: “I didn’t see it coming at all, they were in fantastic spirits, they trained well, I just didn’t see it.

“I can maybe blame one or two things along the way, I’m the manager, I have to take responsibility, I pick the team, but we gave them everything to go out and execute a game-plan that they’ve executed for the last 17 or 18 games.

“It’s one that needs to be put to bed quickly, I’ll analyse, I’ll look at it and get the lads to look at it, they’re a good group and it’s hurting them in there.

“The only down-side is we don’t have a game on Saturday to put it right, so we’ll have a think about how we go about it but I just don’t want to see a performance like that again.”