Jones happy to take the spotlight off any talk of a relegation fight with Blues win

Luton boss Nathan Jones believes that this afternoon’s 1-0 win at Birmingham City will help take the spotlight off any talk of a relegation battle for the Hatters this season.

Dan Potts’ goal on 31 minutes saw Town win a fifth away game of the campaign at a Blues side who are definitely involved in a scrap to stay up, with the victory lifting Luton up to 13th and nine points away from the bottom three.

They are also just nine points off the top six, as speaking afterwards, Jones said: “Come away from home, clean sheet, three points, 1-0 win, I would have taken that all day long, especially with the importance of the game as without being coy about stuff, it was an important win today.

“It gives us a little bit of a buffer but it’s not so much a buffer as we’re not looking there (bottom three), but it might just take the spotlight off certain things as plenty of media would point to things, which then invariably could make the players edgy, so it's a nice timely three points.

“It’s vitally important that you keep moving forward and I kept saying in interviews, we've had a real tough January in terms of some of the games.

“Four away games on the spin and going away to Bournemouth, Brentford, Chelsea, Blackburn, you don't get four harder games than that.

“Performance levels, we were excellent but we didn't get too much from it, we only got three points.

“So it's nice to back up our performances now with points as we've started the month quite well, unbeaten, we've taken four points.

“We should have won last week I'm convinced we should have won after watching the game back, so it's nice to get the points on the board.

"As it does give you a little bit of a buffer, but we’re not looking there (drop zone), we’re looking that way (up) and what it does is it brings others a little bit closer.”

On the game itself, Jones was always confident his side would come out on top after taking the lead through Potts’ first goal since October 2019.

He continued: “I felt like we were (comfortable), to a certain extent, you’re never totally comfortable, but I think we restricted them to very little.

“It was a scrappy game, we lacked a bit of quality, but I think any chances that were had, were had by us.

“We’re a little bit disappointed to not go in further ahead as to be fair we have been in previous games, but what we had to do today was the basics.

“I thought we did the basics really well, especially second half and deservedly got the three points.”

Hatters had the better of the opportunities, with nine shots to the Blues’ four, with four on target, City managing just one.

Jones was satisfied with the goal threat on the day, adding: “I thought we had a lot of chances from set-plays, a lot of first contacts, lot of headers.

“James Collins had a glorious chance where he’s just got the keeper to beat, the keeper’s then pulled off a great save from James, he’s pulled off another good save from Jordan Clark, so we’ve had enough chances.

“Especially being the away side, we’ve had enough of the game to have won the game and we have won the game.

“So I’m very pleased with the discipline we showed, we’ve come away, we’ve won 1-0 away from home which is always a great result.”