Jones wins his 'favourite' Manager of the Month award so far

The Luton chief beat Accrington manager John Coleman, Wycombe supremo Gareth Ainsworth and Grimsby boss Michael Jolley to win the prize, his third of the season after also triumphing in October and November.

Jones led Luton to four wins and a draw in the month, ensuring promotion back to League One for the first time in 10 years when his side drew 1-1 at Carlisle United.

On winning the award, Jones said: "It's probably the favourite one really as it’s the one that got us over the line.

"We were in a real good place at the end of March, and it was the first month we didn’t set ourselves a points target.

"What we said was, 'just try and win every game,' and we near enough did that.

"To finish the season when a lot of people were questioning us, 'are they stuttering? Are they doing that?' To finish with a real sprint has been wonderful, it shows the character, shows the quality, shows they can handle the pressure in terms of everything.

"We’ve had a fabulous month, arguably we could have won all five, and we’ve had to put up with a few little things, a few comments that have been borderline delusional, but we’ve done that and managed to get results.

"I’m very, very proud. The cliche is, for manager of the month it’s a team effort, but what goes into a manager of the month, means the club, the team, has performed better than any other club in that month and we have.

"That’s credit to everyone, especially the players, but I’ve got no problems accepting the trophy."

Jones was particularly pleased with his side for the way they finished the season, ensuring the likes of Wycombe, Exeter and the chasing pack couldn't overtake them with the finishing line in sight.

He added: "We picked up big points in October and November and pretty much every month as we picked up points, but to do it for this one when the pressure was on and to get us over the line and to be finishing strongly, shows that everything we believed in.

"Our environment, our sports science, our training, our rest, everything about it has come good and we’ve scored 13 goals this month, something like that, so we’re doing what we do well after all this time.

"We haven’t taken our foot off the pedal and that got us over the line. Good teams do that and I genuinely believe we are, so it’s my favourite one and I’m delighted to accept it."