Jones delighted by Town's 'beautiful' win over Crawley

A thrilled Luton Town boss Nathan Jones hailed his side's victory over Crawley Town yesterday as a '˜beautiful win'.
Matt Macey and Scott Cuthbert celebrate Hatters' win over Crawley TownMatt Macey and Scott Cuthbert celebrate Hatters' win over Crawley Town
Matt Macey and Scott Cuthbert celebrate Hatters' win over Crawley Town

The Hatters came from a goal behind to end a run of three straight defeats against the Red Devils on home soil, thanks to Danny Hylton’s six minute double strike.

Speaking afterwards, Jones said: “I didn’t think we were really fluent. We were on top and it only looked like there was going to be one side winning the game, but they scored from a counter attack which has been a bit of an Achilles heel.

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“I can’t do any more work on it, can’t tell them about it, can’t actually warn them at half time. We have to react, have to defend that better, and we didn’t.

“So we gave ourselves a little bit of a hill to climb, not a mountain, but a hill, then once we got the first we pushed for the second and it’s a beautiful win, it really is a beautiful win.

“Because it shows that we can dig in as well. They say that the good sides when they play badly can still win, well we did both.”

Although Jones didn’t think the match was ever going to be one to release a highlights package on DVD of, with the likes of Carlisle and Exeter losing, he knew the importance of victory, as it pushed the Hatters up to fourth once more.

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The Town chief added: “We were far from where we are normally, and far from where we were Tuesday (against Yeovil), but, look, a win's a win and we needed that.

“We played Crawley not far off this time last year and it was as dominant a performance as I’ve ever seen, and we lost the game 1-0 .

"Today, we were nowhere near dominant, but we stuck at it. We went in at half time and said this will be a big, big win, because I saw how the results were going at half time, so I knew it would be a big win and it was.

"We should have been ahead first half, which would have settled us down, but when we don't take that. You kind of think, 'have we got the minerals really to want to get promoted? To want to do something special?'

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"That's what I questioned at half time, how much do they want it? Because we weren't fluent and didn’t play particularly well, but we still had a little bit of a cutting edge about us and we still should have gone in up.

“Then after we go a goal down, we came back and they showed a lot of character. We have different threats and we've won the game and to be fair, that's all I'm concerned about.

"That’s probably one of the only games I won’t be watching back, because it was ugly and we were nowhere near it, but it’s been a big week for us in terms of exertion, in terms of what we’ve had to do and I’m very, very happy with the win.”