Bradley thought Luton showed their Championship maturity to avoid unjust defeat against Huddersfield

Town skipper believes Hatters might have lost that game a few seasons ago
Sonny Bradley goes up for a header against Huddersfield on SaturdaySonny Bradley goes up for a header against Huddersfield on Saturday
Sonny Bradley goes up for a header against Huddersfield on Saturday

Hatters captain Sonny Bradley felt his side showed their Championship maturity during the 0-0 draw against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

After a dominant first half in which the Terriers showed they had clearly come to Kenilworth Road for a point, Luton went closest when Amari’i Bell hit the post from all of three yards out after being picked out by Harry Cornick.

The visitors then became slightly more adventurous after the break, on-loan Norwich City midfielder Danel Sinani going close from range, before Harry Toffolo lifted his shot over the bar in the closing stages.

Although Luton found goalscoring opportunities harder to come by after the break, Bradley felt the fact they left with a point to their name, shows just how far they have come from their first season at this level, when they could quite easily have walked away empty-handed.

He said: “I think first half we were the dominant team.

“You can see Huddersfield clearly sat off, trying to slow the game down, they were obviously well aware with what happened in midweek against Coventry, they’d done their homework, did it pretty well.

“We haven’t had a lot of chances, had one really good chance with Amari’i Bell, if that goes in it’s possibly a different game, they have to open up, change their style and change the whole dynamic of the game.

“It didn’t happen, it stayed at 0-0 and we just couldn't get that goal today.

"But for me I think in the past in the Championship over the last couple of seasons, we could possibly lose those games.

“That showed the maturity and the learning from the full squad that we’ve looked at it and realised, ‘look, we might not be able to win today, but we’ll definitely not be losing the game,’ so overall, I think it’s a good point and we’ve had a good week.”

The Town captain also believes like his manager Nathan Jones, that the manner in which Huddersfield approached the contest, shows the kind of respect Town are now getting in the second tier.

He continued: “I think the first year in the Champ was always going to be difficult, the step up, we didn’t have as much experience in the squad.

"Whereas now, that full 11 today has got pretty decent experience in the Championship and we’ve got players like Cameron Jerome and Henri Lansbury coming on that have got real experience as well.

"So you can clearly see that we’re getting more respect from teams and certain teams that don’t want to show us that respect and come here and have a game, like Coventry on Wednesday, then they could potentially get caught out.

"So Huddersfield came here today for the point I think, that’s what it looked like and in the end they got what they wanted.

"They’ll be happy, but for us, it’s a clean sheet, we’d have liked three, but we’ll take the point.”

The result saw Luton head into the international break on the back of four points from their three games after a 2-1 defeat at leaders Bournemouth was followed up by a stunning 5-0 win over Coventry on Wednesday night.

Bradley felt the team could be satisfied with the haul, although he also believed they deserved more for their troubles, adding: “We’re footballers, we’re greedy, we want as many points as we can.

"Six would have been lovely, backing up Wednesday, but I also think a week ago at Bournemouth, we deserved something that game.

"I didn’t play myself, but I was there, it was a very good performances from us and we’ve had the better of the chances.

"So I think we’ve been the better team overall in all three games we’ve played this week, it's four points, but it's also two clean sheets as well, which we’re happy with.

"That’s five for the season and we’re looking to build on that.”