Bradley: Clean sheets are vital if Hatters are to stay up

Hatters centre half Sonny Bradley knows that plenty more clean sheets are required to give his side a realistic chance of staying in the Championship this season.

Prior to Town’s trip to Middlesbrough last month, they had conceded in every game on their travels this term, a whopping 41 in total, and looked like they could go through the campaign without a shut out on the road.

However, they kept their first at the Riverside and then recorded another at the DW Stadium on Saturday, meaning Town have now on a run of three clean sheets in six matches overall after beating Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 at home as well.

Bradley wants more to follow suit, saying: “In this division, whether you’re playing home or away, keeping a clean sheet is very difficult because of the quality there is in this division.

“Wigan have been in good form and, to be fair, they’ve probably turned up thinking they were going to beat us because of our defensive record this season, possibly, putting a few past us.

“We’ve worked extremely hard in trying to nullify their chances and I think we’ve done that well.

“They’ve had one really good chance towards the end and Simon Sluga’s pulled off a great save, kept us in the game and got us a clean sheet.

“In this division, a clean sheet, at any time, is very good.

“It’s something we’re proud of and we’ve had a few of them in the last six or seven games and we need to get as many as we can.

“With nine games left, you feel we’re probably going to need another four or five to give us a chance.

“Defensively, we’ve done really well. We’ve had to sacrifice some of our attacking moves, to nullify their chances and we’ve done that well.

“We’re happy with the clean sheet and, yes, it’s a point gained.”

The clean sheet was the third in a row for Bradley, who had missed the last three games with injury.

It also means that when Bradley and Cameron Carter-Vickers have partnered each other at centre half, with Matty Pearson at right back, they are yet to be breached.

The captain continued: “I think the Middlesbrough game was important for us away from home because it’s the first time we’ve set up in a way that was fairly defensive, Matty Pearson at right back, me and Cam playing centre back and it just showed that it can work.

“We got a clean sheet for it and we took a lot of confidence from that.

“OK, we went to Charlton and it didn’t quite go for us there, we didn’t get the win, but we’ve found a way now to gain points away from home.

“That’s going to be massively important moving forwards.

“I still think we can play more at times.

“When the ball settles down, we need to move faster to get on it and create more chances. But it’s a point gained, it’s a clean sheet and I’m fairly happy.”

On the switch in formation, Hatters boss Graeme Jones said: “I’m delighted with those lads as Cameron has given us a real solidity at the back, a real resilience.

“Matty’s adapted, he can play with him (Carter-Vickers), he can play right back, we went to Middlesbrough two or three weeks ago and he played right back.

“I knew Kieffer Moore would pull into that kind of area and with the greatest respect we needed a centre half there and I think he did his job really well.”