Luton chief knew silencing the Stoke crowd was a key factor in securing Hatters' first victory over the Potters since 2000

Luton boss Nathan Jones knew from first hand experience that if his side could silence the Stoke City crowd last night, it would give them a huge chance of picking up a first win at the bet365 Stadium since 2000.

So it proved too as in a scrappy first half, the Hatters denied their opponents time and space, with Tyrese Campbell and Josh Maja both fading following bright starts, as the majority of the 18,270 were growing increasingly annoyed by their side's inability to go forward as quickly as they wanted.

After the break, those frustrations grew with 10 minutes gone, Danny Hylton producing an excellent first time finish from Harry Cornick’s cross.

To make matters worse, the Potters faithful then saw former player Cameron Jerome come on and make it 2-0, with another neat effort from Kal Naismith’s delivery, meaning Lewis Baker’s late curler from distance was a consolation.

Jones, who had nine months in charge at Stoke, sacked after six wins in 38 matches, with only three of those coming in Staffordshire, said: "They’ve had a tough time in the last few years, I didn’t help that, my results didn’t help that, but it’s a passionate crowd, a big crowd.

“If Stoke get on top they’re excellent, if it goes the other way then it can be to their detriment as they demand, and that’s the thing.

“They demand from the players and I felt we grew with that, I felt we silenced that and it was a notch gained for us.

“Then second half I felt we were outstanding, took control of the game against a good side, they’ve got good players, but a wonderful performance."

Going in at half time goalless was a boost for the Hatters as well, with their last two trips to Stoke seeing them trailing 1-0 and 2-0, allowing the Potters to have a far freer second 45, going on to lose 3-0 each time.

Still being on level terms was an important factor for goalscorer Hylton, as he said: “We limited them to a couple of shots from outside the box, Tyrese Campbell, he’s got a brilliant left foot, but you come to Stoke and at half time that’s all they’ve had, you’re delighted.

"We thought if we could just sharpen up, tighten up a little bit in the final third, we could create chances.

"The crowd turned because it’s 0-0, they expect their team to be winning and then we score.

"We score again and a little bit nervy towards the end, but that's what we do, we never make it easy for ourselves.”

Jones hadn't been overly worried about a repeat of last year's display when the Potters walked through Town's defence at times to score three simple goals, as he continued: “We’re a different team now.

"We came here last year, we were inept, we really were.

"I had an issue with a certain player before the game last year and certain things, but we’re a different side.

"We believe we can come here and win games, and we don’t change, we don’t change for anyone now.

"We’re a side that we were in League Two, a side that we were in League One, we’re in the Championship now, we don’t change.

"We are who we are, we learn to solve problems and I’m really proud of that because our budget, we're bottom three, bottom four, these are top four budget.

"So to compete with that we have to have belief, we have to have work-rate, have to have aggression, have to have quality and we did, we had all those.

"We’re not getting carried away, but to come in and do what we did to Stoke City shows we're in a good place.”