Clean sheet was 'big' for Luton keeper Horvath

Keeper Ethan Horvath insisted it was a ‘big’ achievement for the Hatters to record their third clean sheet of the season when winning 2-0 against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

The on-loan Town stopper hadn’t enjoyed a shut-out at Kenilworth Road since the opening day of the campaign, conceding in each of his last four outings in front of his new fans.

However, despite going up against a Rovers attack that contained Chile sensation Ben Brereton Diaz, there were very few threats on Horvath’s goal over the 90 minutes.

In fact the only shot on target came in the seventh minute, when the keeper got just enough on the close range effort from Rovers’ international attacker after he had gone clean through, Dan Potts covering back to clear off the line as the ball threatened to trickle in.

Reflecting on the display, Horvath said: “For myself, for the team and especially the defence, it’s a big one.

"I don’t want to say a sigh of relief, but we’ve been unlucky with an own goal, guys putting in great shots, so it was a pretty quiet day for me.

"The second half the guy had the one shot that went over the goal, but other than that, it was a strong performance.

"I think the defence were fantastic, put in a great shift, we all can be very happy with that and defensively I wasn’t worried about one single thing at all.

"The second one at home, third of the season, I think it came at the right time, now we’ll take the international break and when we come back, we go again.”

“That was really it (early shot), in the second half the guy had the one shot that went over the goal, but other than that, that was it, it was a strong performance.

Horvath found himself behind a much-changed back-line to the 2-2 draw with Coventry on Wednesday night, as Tom Lockyer and Reece Burke, who went on to score a stunning 25-yard strike to make it 2-0, replaced Gabe Osho and skipper Sonny Bradley.

It was of no issue to the USA international though, as he added: “I wouldn’t say it’s a difficulty.

"It’s a squad thing, we all have to trust in one another and if the manager wants to make some changes, it’s his decision depending on the game or what the game requires.

"For me, it’s just trusting in one another. If something goes wrong, we have each others backs and we just continue to fight.”

Having been joint third in the second tier for clean sheets last season, the Hatters were way down the list going into Saturday’s contest, something that had been frustrating boss Nathan Jones.

He now hopes Saturday is the beginning of a return to Town’s more miserly ways, saying: “With the greatest respect, before I left, we were the most fluent footballing side, outside the Premier League, so lets not compare ourselves with any of those.

"We were one of the most fluent football sides you’d see, could score goals, do everything, press, work hard and we were excellent at what we did.

"We’ve come into the Championship and we prided ourselves on keeping clean sheets.

"When I came back we had to shore up because we had the worst defensive record in the league, we did that and survived.

"Then the year after we were a little bit more tentative but hard to beat and then last year we were excellent, 19 clean sheets, should have been more, but we were absolutely wonderful in how we went about our work.

"Now we’ve got to get back to that as that’s your bread and butter, that’s your platform.

"You can’t put a roof on a house of you haven’t got the foundations in place and that’s what we have to really concentrate on.”

The clean sheet was a huge factor in Town finally ending their quest for a much-needed home victory, triumphing at Kenilworth Road for the first time this term, a sequence that had spanned six matches in all competitions.

It hadn’t been a factor going into the game for Horvath and his team-mates though, the USA international adding: “For myself personally I didn’t feel that we had a home issue at all.

"I feel like we put in some good performances at home, one or two moments didn’t fall our way, but that’s the thing about football.

"You’ve just got to keep believing and keep pushing and that’s what we did today.

“It’s a long time coming, we put in some good performances this year at home, but I think I can speak for the whole team, we’re really, really happy about this performance, offensively and defensively, we’re very solid.”