Graeme Jones praised Luton’s first half ruthlessness as they got their first Championship win of the season with a three-goal, 30-minute romp to beat Barnsley 3-1 at Oakwell – and the manager said it could have been more.
Jacob Butterfield smashed in an 82nd minute opener and it quickly became 2-0 when James Collins bundled in his second of the season.
Harry Cornick matched the striker’s goal tally with his second in two games as the Tykes couldn’t cope and only keeper Simon Radlinger kept Luton at bay with two fines stops to keep the score down before the break.
Speaking afterwads, Jones said: “I think we need to enjoy the win and the performance because we were ruthless at times today and I mean ruthless.
“If we’d have been 5-0 up at half time, nobody could’ve complained. The two different faces we’ve worn this season, in terms of our performances, has been really satisfying in how far we’ve come in such a short space of time.”
Town had been gradually improving their performance levels with each game in the Championship, despite results meaning a three-game losing run for the first time in 2016, but Jones had been promising in the build-up that his side were so close to cracking it in the Championship. So it proved after a dogged display to defend their lead in the second half, though they couldn’t claim their first clean sheet of the campaign.
Asked what his emotions were at experiencing his first league win as Luton boss, the manager said: “(It’s) reward for nine weeks. The boys have been magnificent, every single one of them. I mean magnificent. These characters are outstanding.
“You feel for them at times when they’ve given everything they’ve got, like they did at Sheffield Wednesday, West Brom, Cardiff and you get negative things happen to you. So, I think the reward for the lads is a great feeling.
“It was one of those days, I didn’t care who scored. I didn’t care how it was scored. We needed to win the game. That’s a mentality we’re talking about. We worked on Thursday and Friday in the final third, about hurting teams, about being a bit more threatening, a bit more penetrating, a bit more positive and a bit more purpose to us.
“Don’t hope to score, make sure you score. It’s a different mentality and I couldn’t be happier than where we are today.
“Actions speak louder than words and there’s a point where you just have to win a football match and that’s where we are and that’s what we did. I think we’ll take a lot, psychologically from it.”
Town benefitted from a chance of tactics at Oakwell where they went more direct to find the outstanding Kazenga LuaLua, rather than the patient build-from-the-back style of previous games.
“That was the plan,” said Jones, adding: “The learning curve for the boys was to teach them to play in different ways. Some of the physicality we’ve faced in the Championship, it’s been a bit difficult to go toe-for-toe with them. Today, I felt we could hurt them. We just changed the game a little bit.
“I like the fact that we’ve got different styles in our system because we’re going to need it. The Championship challenges you in that way. So, it’s really satisfying.”
