Bradley: Portsmouth performance meant conditions were never going to be an excuse at Bradford

On what was a poor playing surface, with swirling wind and rain to boot, the Hatters produced a wonderful first half display at times, cutting through their hosts’ back-line, scoring an excellent goal through Jack Stacey, unfortunate not to add another two or three their tally.

With the stunning manner in which they played during the first period against Portsmouth at a snowy Kenilworth Road back in January fresh in their minds, Bradley said: “They are all factors that come into but I don’t mind that.

"Matty (Pearson) doesn’t mind that, I know Stace (Jack Stacey) doesn’t, JJ (James Justin) and Sheasy (James Shea), we don’t mind conditions.

“The pitch, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we can mix it up.

“In the circumstances, we had to go a bit more direct, as did Bradford, but we were strong, we limited their chances and I thought we deserved to win.

“It (Town’s football) was exceptional, a lot of the time I’m not involved in it, it’s in front of me, it’s a pleasure to watch.

“Before the game Mick (Harford) said to us, ‘look, some of the best football we played this season was Portsmouth at home under the worst conditions we’ve played in all season, so we’re not going to use that as an excuse to maybe change our style much.’

“It was a great bit of play, a couple of switches of play, JJ got the ball to Elliot (Lee), Elliot’s got into Shins (Andrew Shinnie), sucked someone under the ball, the next minutes Stace’s in.

"Stace in those position for a full back, he’s clinical, he’s put it away, we win 1-0 and it’s a perfect result.”

Town chief Mick Harford was also full of praise for the manner in which Town approached the game, saying: “You saw the football in the first half, I don’t think the pitch hindered us.

“It’s just the wind and the rain and the ball swirling around which is not very conducive for good football.

“But I think in the first half we were excellent and thoroughly deserved the lead

“The commitment the lads showed is paramount and testament to the way they’ve been training every day and the way they go about their business.

“I’ll keep repeating myself as those lads are credit to the football club.

“We were disappointed on Saturday (against Plymouth) not to win, but we came here, there’s no easy games and we know these are tough games, teams struggling down the bottom of the league.

“I believe they played above the level they are in the league and they made it very difficult for us in the second half.”

Luton should have really put the game to bed in that opening period, as City came out with more about them in the second half, stepping up their tempo, only to find the Hatters’ standing strong once more.

Bradley added: “We’ve done that a couple of times this season where going into the break, we possibly could have been three or four nil up.

“It wasn’t to be and it was game on. Second half, credit to them, they came out, tried to play, possibly tried to overplay at times, which kind of suited us.

“We just kept trying to keep the ball in front of us, we have to put a real hard shift in and that’s what we’ve done.

“Credit to all the players, because it is difficult, Bradford, Tuesday night and all the boys before the game, were pumped up for it.

“Credit to them and credit to the staff, we’ve come here, we’ve got what we wanted and go back down south happy.”