Town defender takes real pride in Luton's clean sheet record after Millwall stalemate

Defender Amari’i Bell conveyed a real sense of pride in the Hatters registering yet another clean sheet during their goalless draw against Millwall on Saturday.

Town’s 18th of the season was achieved thanks to a display that saw the visitors defend their box with real confidence and resilience, keeper Ethan Horvath having just the one meaningful effort to deal with all game, that a Ryan Leonard daisycutter from range that he pushed behind.

It means that Luton have the joint highest number of shut-outs in the division with Coventry, just one away from the total they reached last term, and have kept six from their last eight games.

Bell, who has been a first team regular all season, becoming a mainstay of the Town back three in recent months, said: “I’m so proud, to get clean sheet after clean sheet, it’s good for us, good for our confidence.

“Each game we understand each other even more, how we play and the partnerships are good.

"We’re happy and we’re comfortable with how things are going.

“We just feel so strong, solid, and feel like, defending is relentless and something we love doing, so it’s good.

“Defensively we’re strong and we’re feeling very good, so we want to keep more clean sheets and get something from the game is always a positive.

“As long as we can keep on doing that it makes his (Horvath’s) job easier.

"So we’re going to try our hardest to do it in every game that we do play, it gives us a solid base as in order to win games, clean sheets help a lot.”

Bell had always expected it to be a tight battle against a physical Millwall side with promotion aspirations of their own, sitting in fifth place ahead of kick-off.

He continued: “They’re a solid team too defensively.

"We knew it was going to be tough, the atmosphere here as well, a difficult place to come, we’re happy with what we did.

“We knew it was going to be that kind of game, we stood up to the test, the boys were excellent at heading the ball away and getting the first contact, so it was good.

"We know we didn’t play the best football, but it’s a positive to get something from the game.

“It wasn't really the best display football-wise for us, the positive is we got something, so that’s fine.”

One of the key components to Town’s defensive excellence has been the addition of Aston Villa midfielder Marvelous Nakamba on loan until the end of the season during the January transfer window.

With the Zimbabwean international in the side, Luton have been breached just twice from open play twice in 12 matches, as Bell continued: “He’s excellent at that, as you saw throughout all the games he’s played.

"With him in front of us it makes our job easier and then ultimately makes Ethan’s job easier again.”