Jones left purring by '˜wonderful' win at Pilgrims

Jack Marriott’s 13th of the season was enough to defeat the Pilgrims as Hatters bounced back from their 1-0 defeat against Crawley Town win a fifth game out of six.

Jones said: “I’m delighted, it was a different kind of performance from last week in terms of the domination factor, but we came here, I asked them for an away performance and they were outstanding.

“We wanted a fast start which we didn’t quite get, and they as the home team to come out of the blocks, but our keeper never had a save to make.

“I know they had a little bit of possession, and then worked on stuff to try and affect our shape, but I felt we were okay, no real problem.

“I felt we had the two best chances of the half, one we scored from, the corner Jack had an unbelievable opportunity and felt we had better chances first half.

“It was was a real good away performance, our keeper had one save to make second half which was offside anyway, and I thought it was a magnificent performance I really did and I’m really, really proud of them.”

The hosts dropped out of the top three before kick off for the first time since September and Jones felt Argyle might be starting to feel the pressure of their lofty position, as he continued: “It’s difficult for Plymouth and I spoke to their manager beforehand as he’s doing a wonderful job here. They’ve been up the top all season and that’s tough to do as they’re there week in week out to be shot at.

“Northampton have come with an unbelievable run and just springboarded everyone, but Plymouth have been there all season to be shot at and they’re having to learn to grind out results.

“Maybe it’s catching up with them a little bit, they’ve picked up one or two injuries, but they’ve got some really good players, really talented players and as I said, it’s just a frustrating time for them at the moment, but they’re a real good side.

“So for us to come here and win as not many come here and win, in the manner that we didn, I’m very pleased.”

The only frustrating aspect of the weekend was the victory didn’t close Town’s gap the top seven, as Leyton Orient saw off Morecambe, with Hatters remaining six points adrift.

Jones added: “It is (disappointing), but we’ve got to keep going game by game, we can’t think about play-offs, we can’t think about this, we haven’t mentioned that.

“We were disappointed with last week and I asked for a bounce back and away performance in our presentation. We bounced back emphatically, and in terms of an away performance, that’s just wonderful.”