Hard to please Still hails ‘decent’ Wrexham win

Focused Hatters chief John Still revealed he didn’t think his side “played very well first half” as they surged into a 4-0 lead against Wrexham on Tuesday night, writes Mark Wood.
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A brace from Luke Guttridge and goals from hotshot strikers Andre Gray and Paul Benson had seen Luton seize the initiative.

But hard to please Still said: “I don’t think we played very well first half, I’ve got to be honest. The pitch was dead.

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“Going forward, yeah, but to be honest it’s standards and we’ve set standards and I’ve got to be honest, we did OK.

“Second half we only got one, I think we were better second half than the first, but it’s just important to remind people of the standards you set and we’ve set standards.

“I’m not saying we were terrible in the first half, of course we weren’t. But I said before the game we’ve got three reports and I’ve seen Wrexham myself this year other than playing them, and I think they’ve played well.

“They played well at Cambridge. When they got beat Saturday, they played all right Saturday, and I said to the players if you think we’re going to turn up and it’s going to be easy because they’ve changed their manager, it’s going to be tough.

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“And people look at five and go it was easy, it wasn’t easy, no games are easy.”

Jake Howells scored from the spot to complete the rout in the second half, in a performance that was much more pleasing to Still’s eye.

He said: “Second half, I thought we were better than the first half and we only got one goal. So I was really, really pleased that we could up our pace, up our tempo in the second half.

“We moved the ball better, thought we had more control of the game. Going forward we’re always a threat, we always get that into us, we’re so good around there.

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“I’m delighted to have won and I thought it was a decent performance, I didn’t think it was a great performance, but I thought it was a decent performance.”

Town were 3-0 up inside 17 minutes as the game looked over before it had barely begun, but Howells and his team-mates had never written off the wounded Red Dragons.

He admitted: “Definitely not. We know what Wrexham are like, we’ve played them a lot in a few years in this league now and we know they’ve got quality.

“So we couldn’t take anything for granted and if we keep pushing on, like we did, we got a couple more goals, which was very good, and we got a clean sheet which is a big bonus as well.”

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Skipper Ronnie Henry was thrilled by Town’s rapid start and some of the quality of football they displayed on the night.

But he also warned there is still a long way to go in Town’s quest for the title, despite them being 14 points clear of nearest challengers Cambridge United.

He added: “It’s perfect. It’s a dream come true, we’re not there yet, we’re nowhere near it, but I mean some of the performances that we’re putting in are top quality for this league and for the pitches we’re playing on they’re not the greatest, but we’re trying to play the right way.

“It’s 17 goals in three games and conceded none. Today we were 2-0 up and I’d only headed the ball once.

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“Sometimes watching Luke Guttridge and Benno (Paul Benson) and Andre (Gray) and Alex Lawless and all them players, sometimes it’s just great to watch.

“But we’ve also got to be on our guard and concentrate at the back because that’s what’s getting us there as well.”