Edwards thought Luton 'deserved' to end Bluebirds unbeaten run

Luton boss Rob Edwards thought his side ‘deserved’ to claim all three points against Cardiff City this evening, as Jacob Brown’s goal just before the hour mark ensured they did just that with a 1-0 victory.

Going up against one of the form teams in the Championship, Town’s visitors unbeaten throughout the whole of October, winning four and drawing two of their last six matches, an unexciting first period saw precious little goalmouth action until the Hatters had huge appeals for a penalty turned down just before the break when Carlton Morris’s cross was handled by Calum Chambers.

Referee Matt Donohue gave nothing despite the fierce protests from Luton’s skipper, but the hosts didn’t let the decision get to them, taking the lead early in the second period, Brown powering a header into the net from Alfie Doughty’s corner on 57 minutes. From then on, the Hatters looked the better side, as despite being unable to add a second goal, defended stoutly to ensure the points remained in Bedfordshire.

Edwards said: “I think we played well, but you can see Cardiff are playing well at the minute. They’ve got a good rhythm, a confidence and belief there, the run that they’ve been on and some very good players as well. After the first 15 minutes or so where we were a little bit, we didn’t quite arrive quickly enough in some of the pressing, after that we got to grips with it.

“We won it back a lot and I think the game was where we wanted it to be. They might have had the ball a little bit but we’ve got to try and keep it as far away from our goal as possible which we did. We certainly had the majority of the momentum and the game was where we wanted it to take place, so I think we deserved the win, but it was a night where it (the result) was important.”

Having conceded first in their last two home matches against Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion, Edwards knew getting their noses in front, particularly against a side who were looking to waste time from every goal kick and slow things down where possible, was crucial. He continued: “The first goal was really important. We talked about it at half time actually, that tonight could be about fine margins.

"The game’s not completely one-sided. I felt like we were the more dominant team, where the game was, but clearly they had a threat and they were still dangerous, so the game was in the balance. It was going to be about fine margins and coming out on the right side of that. When he (Doughty) gets that delivery bang on we’re a threat as we’ve got people arriving in the right areas, so I’m really pleased for Jacob.

"My only frustration was some of that momentum we really carried forward after the goal, built on the confidence and I just wanted the lads to try and take the game away from them. We had one or two really good moments and there were instances where we could have killed them off but we didn’t. Then we had to make sure we defended properly and we did. The good thing about tonight was that we defended well, there were no big saves for Thomas (Kaminski) to make, there were no big chances that they had, that was obviously really pleasing.”