Bradley reveals Town were given a 'talking to' from coach Sheehan ahead of Hawthorns trip after their set-piece woes against Terriers

Town captain Sonny Bradley admitted revealed the Luton players had received a ‘talking to’ from first team coach Alan Sheehan ahead of their goalless draw against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday following the set-piece deficiencies that cropped up in Tuesday night’s 3-3 draw with Huddersfield Town.

The Hatters were been breached three times in midweek draw, all of the Terriers goals coming from set-plays, an area that Sheehan deals exclusively with.

While Luton’s attacking routines have been impressive this term, Henri Lansbury’s corner leading to the visitors going in front at Hull City recently, their efforts at defending dead-balls left a lot to be desired in their last outing at Kenilworth Road.

The former Town skipper’s words certainly had the required effect, with the visitors looking far more secure at the Hawthorns, the Baggies unable to break through from their seven corners.

Bradley said: “We had a talking to from Alan Sheehan after the game against Huddersfield and we came into this game with a real focus on defending set-pieces.

“We speak about the first set-piece we have to defend, how important it is to get that first contact and we grow into it from there.

"We had one maybe in the first half where it went to the back stick and we didn’t get a first contact, but apart from that, we were solid.

"A lot of the times in this division, when you do the basics right, it helps you get the result that you want and that’s certainly the case.

“A point is good, I think the one Tuesday night was a little bit harder to take, three set-pieces.

"If we defend midweek from set-pieces like we did today, seven points instead of five, but we move on, it’s a clean sheet in the Championship and we look forward to next week.”

Boss Nathan Jones had been left bitterly frustrated that his side had been so poor from defending dead-ball situations on Tuesday night, labelling their defensive display a ‘calamity’ and describing how their usually excellent zonal marking went wrong during the fixture.

However, he was far happier this time, the Hatters stretching their unbeaten run to five matches in the process, continuing: “We just went back to normal.

“That was a freak, that happens once in a blue moon and we’ve got to make sure it only happens once in a blue moon.

“We don’t score two own goals, not since I’ve been here have we scored two own goals and have our zones been caught out like that.

"It wasn’t because delivery was unbelievable, it was because we just didn’t do our jobs and didn’t do the basics right.

“We are a side that does the basics very, very well and that gives us that platform.”

Although the hosts went close to scoring in the first period, Brandon Thomas-Asante sliding a good chance wide and then firing off target when the ball dropped to him inside the box, after the break, they were kept at arm’s length for the majority by Town’s defence, Ethan Horvath denying Conor Townsend and Jed Wallace curling wide from 20 yards.

It left Bradley starting to expect a third shut-out in four away fixture, as he said: “It was a difficult game, as you saw, they left three up top, we had three at the back, so it was pretty much man for man all game.

"I was one-on-one and that’s just the way we want to play.

"Yes we want to be safe away from home, at times we did have cover as well, but if you want to go on and win games and get into those play-off spots again, you have to try and get on the front foot.

"At times you might be exposed and then it’s up to you to be a good defender and it was tricky, when they made the sub and (Karlan) Grant came on, it was difficult.

"But I think as the game wore on, our confidence grew and after 50 or 60 minutes if we're playing well, I always get that feeling it’s going to be a clean sheet and I got that.

"We could have won it, we didn’t, but its a good point.”

Boss Jones added: “Their front three was proper, there’s not many better front three in terms of lively.

"Jed Wallace is an excellent player and has proved to be that, Grady Diangana on his day can rip you apart and we’ve watched games here with Swansea, we’ve watched Preston in midweek, and they should have won those games.

“Here, I’m not sure they can say that. We limited them to very, very little, whereas in other games they normally create, create, create.

“Against Preston in midweek the keeper had a fantastic game, our keeper didn’t, their keeper made more saves than ours did.”