Hard working paying off for Town's defence as they shut out promotion-chasing Bournemouth yet again

Luton’s hard work is paying off defensively for the Hatters after they kept out title-challenging Bournemouth for a second game in quick succession during Saturday's 1-0 win at the Vitality Stadium.

It's in stark contrast to this time last season when Town's first 12 games on the road saw them concede 30 goals, including seven at Brentford, without keeping any shut-outs either.

This term they have been breached a mere 13 times on their travels, with five shut-outs already, while the eight clean sheets secured is already one more than the whole of last campaign.

On his side's increased solidity, Jones said: “We have to be as we’ve always had a good defensive record here.

"In the past we were lauded for our attacking prowess, but we worked incredibly hard and we were very, very good defensively.

"I think we were in the top two pretty much every year, maybe the first year when we got to the play-offs we were top three in terms of defensive record, and we’ve had to really instill that.

"Now we’re not the most free-flowing scoring, but what we’ve said to them is if we can work hard, if we can keep clean sheets then we’ve always got a chance to get points on the board and that's what we’ve done.

"But the players need the credit for that as they work so, so hard, some probably too hard.

"Some probably overrun when an element of just calm, they’d be in the same position, but I can’t take that away from them, because it’s a group that really wants to do well and gives me everything and that’s why they get clean sheets.

"On the weekend, someone told me about their managers comments that they were the best team, they should be.

"They’ve got wonderful, wonderful players, but it was a very even game up until the sending off.

"Second half we had to really do all the ugly things, heading in the box, go with runners, stop shots, block shots, we did all those things and that’s as important as free-flowing football and creating chances.

"That’s what we did at the weekend and I’m very pleased with that, but they’ve shown since I’ve been here over whatever it is, 37 games, and even against a side like Man United, they’re a side that tries to defend well.

"It’s not for a lack of trying that sometimes we get caught out, sometimes it’s other people’s quality.

“We know sometimes that we get stretched and we’re at our limits, but we need that.

"To play nearly 200 minutes against Bournemouth and to keep two clean sheets shows that you have something, as I’ll be very, very surprised if these don’t get promoted, with the squad they have.

"Money doesn’t guarantee you that, but these have a squad that can really hurt you, over a number of games.

"They test you on every level, they have a good structure, the way they play, the quality they have, so for us to keep two clean sheets is pretty much utopia."

For defender Sonny Bradley, he was naturally more than satisfied that the Hatters had been able to keep out a Cherries side containing a multi-million pound striker in Dominic Solanke for the second game running and sought after forward Josh King as well.

Although keeper Simon Sluga made a good late save from Rodrigo Riquelme, he only faced six shots on target throughout the two matches, as Bradley said :"For us, that’s obviously a box ticked which is huge.

"Two clean sheets and again, Simon hasn’t had too much to do which I think he’ll be happy with.

"What he did he did really well, Simon deserved it and the whole team deserved it.

"We stepped it up, set-pieces against, we did it well, they’ve got some big boys, some good players aerially from set-pieces, but we nullified their chances.

"It's a great clean sheet and I’ve said it before, I think 1-0 away from home is the best result in football.

"The only thing missing is a couple of thousand fans behind us giving it to the home fans, that’s the only thing we’re missing.

"Let's get the next few months out of the way, do things right and hopefully we can start the next season and fans are back."

Town's shut-out did come under threat just ahead of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's winner when Solanke reached King's throughball to prod his effort beyond Sluga, only to see Dan Potts make a superb sliding intervention to prevent the ball crossing the line.

Bradley added: "They had a really, really good chance a couple of minutes before, Potts with a great clearance off the line.

"If that goes in, it makes it a difficult game to get back into as all of a sudden they can just sit in and it would be really, really hard to get something out of the game, but Pottsy’s kept us in the game, with a great block.

"Then it (Luton's winner) goes in and from there I think they’re still full of energy, still pushing for the goal.

"But we’ve defended as a team tremendously well and seen out the game, which in the Championship, you've got to do when you're 1-0 up.

"When we play against teams who go 1-0 up, they sit in, they're experienced, they know how to win games.

"I think we showed that maturity and that experience and we’ll need that for the rest of the season."