Practice pays off for Pearson as he nets from yet another Justin corner

Matty Pearson scores his sixth of the season against Coventry

When the Hatters won what was a fortunate corner on 17 minutes, James Justin swung over an excellent set-piece with Pearson unmarked to nod home from close range.

It was his third goal in six games and the second time he has been picked out by Justin’s accuracy, as speaking afterwards, the centre half said: “He’s done that numerous times now and I’m just happy to score.

“We work on it all the time, work on movement and decoy runners and thankfully it’s paid off.”

Midfielder Alan McCormack was another who knew it was no fluke Pearson getting into the position that he did.

He said: “People will say he always seems to be in the right spot, but we work religiously on our set-pieces.

“The analysis we get on teams, they look for every weak point and a continuing weak point in the set-piece we try to exploit it.

“We knew they were weak at the back stick, I think Sonny Bradley’s cleared off the line, Matty Pearson’s got his great header, while there were a couple of free kicks which were a little bit soft where they were getting bullied and the referee’s given them.

“But we work on that religiously and we work on getting people in those areas who are excellent at heading the ball.

“Matty’s got his goal today as we worked on that yesterday.”

Boss Mick Harford was quick to point out the efforts put in by his backroom staff, saying: “It’s testament to hard work, Steve Rutter (assistant manager) on the training ground and the coaches.

“He got a free header at the back post and it’s something we work on daily, so we’re delighted with that, to get a set-piece goal.”

Pearson’s joy at scoring soon turned to frustration, after he was beaten by City attacker Jordy Hiwula in the build-up for the Sky Blues equaliser which cost Town two precious points.

He added: “As it went down (the line), Stace (Jack Stacey) has got a touch and totally done me.

“It’s gone inside me instead of where I was reading it was going to go, my guy got round me and squared it across, but we’ll look back and we’ll do our analysis.

“We’ll see what’s what, like we always do and try to put it right."