Spurs loanee reveals 'reset' helped Luton recover from Dons woe

Town goalscorer Jamie Donley felt his side have benefited from a ‘reset’ following their 2-1 defeat at MK Dons recently by picking up a third straight win when defeating Doncaster Rovers 3-1 on Tuesday evening.

The Hatters’ disappointing reverse in Buckinghamshire was met with a barrel-load of criticism from the 6,000 travelling fans in attendance, and those commenting online afterwards, as Luton’s players were incredibly low following the fixture. However, they were able to get back to winning ways immediately when beating Barnsley, following that up with a 2-1 success over Leicester City on Saturday and then making it nine points from nine last night.

It was done thanks to a penalty late in the first half from Callum Marshall, before Donley had the third and fourth goals of his time in Bedfordshire to put the hosts 3-0 to the good, Bayley McCann’s late header scant consolation for the visitors. Discussing just how Town have been able to propel themselves up to eighth in the table, Donley said: “After the MK Dons game we had a reset and three really big home wins.

"It was a really good performance (against Doncaster). The last 20 minutes it was a bit disappointing to concede. We're trying to keep clean sheets and at 3-0, everyone’s not going through the motions, but we kind of know we’ve won the game. We probably should have scored a lot more goals, it probably should have been five, six and then the game’s done.

"After Barnsley, we wanted to push on and Leicester, scoring in the last minute, it gives us another really big boost and then tonight, coming to our place, we want to make it as difficult for any team to come and the last three games we've shown that.”

Donley himself has already proved he is more than capable of finding the net in the third tier, scoring eight goals in 39 games during a loan spell with Leyton Orient in the 2024-25 campaign. Having netted against the O's and then a quite brilliant curler in the 4-1 success at Wycombe Wanderers, the Northern Ireland international was at it again, with two clinical finishes during a largely dominant second half display.

First, he curved home a beautiful first-time half volley into the bottom corner once Jake Richards had teed him up from Marshall’s knockdown and then took advantage when the visiting defence couldn’t clear their lines from Richards’ low cross to confidently beat Tommy Simkin from closer in.

On his double, and having to go again in just a few days' time when Town travel to Peterborough United, Donley said: “The first one was a really nice finish. I tried to get solid contact on it, while the second was cut back and it just fell to me. I thought I could get another clean contact and I'm delighted to score. We made a couple of changes today, freshened the lads up, but none of us look tired, we were all ready to go. We have a good squad and whoever comes in is ready to go, so we’ll go into Saturday and try to get another three points.”

Now up to four goals from his 11 outings, Luton’s joint second top scorer this term, it was no surprise to boss Jack Wilshere that the Spurs academy graduate is having such an impact in the final third, as he added: “His first one was excellent and his second one, he found a hard. He’s got that, he works really hard on a lot of his game, but probably the one thing he focuses on a lot is his finishing.

"He’s always out with Marshy, working on that and you get what you deserve. There's no surprise for me that when he gets in front of goal he’s confident, He’s got a really nice left foot, when he shifts it, it’s a different type of finish. The first touch one for the first goal was excellent, he works on that so credit to him.”