Luton chief Graeme Jones admitting his satisfaction that the 1-0 win at Middlesbrough showed how team selection lessons have been learned from the 7-0 thrashing Brentford.
On that day in November, the manager named an unchanged side for the third Championship game in a row and they suffered their most humiliating league result for 53 years, while also losing Izzy Brown (hamstring) and Brendan Galloway (knee) to injury.
At the Riverside Stadium on Saturday, also their third clash in seven day, Jones made four bold changes from the side that beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 in midweek, dropping Glen Rea, Brown and James Bree, while Harry Cornick was ruled out with a hamstring problem.
Ryan Tunnicliffe’s first goal for Town settled the contest, while Luke Berry, Kazenga LuaLua, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Martin Cranie all returned and excelled.
Jones said: “There are a lot of variables, that (Brentford) was the first time I’ve played the same team three times in a row. The result and the performance totally didn’t work, so you have to learn those lessons.
“Like, as human beings, everyone in this (press) room has made mistakes. Only the mugs don’t learn from them.
“What would have happened if I’d have kept that same group of players in that Brentford week, two weeks later?
“Maybe they would’ve learnt their lesson, maybe that wouldn’t have happened.
“There are so many variables in football, injuries, suspensions, that you’re not in that privileged positions to find out, the goalposts shift all the time.
“What I took from that Brentford week, if I was just assessing that on its own, was that we couldn’t cope with it, we needed to freshen it up.
“I think we freshened it up in four areas. There were four changes but, remember, those boys needed to be well-worked physically.
“If you think the last time Luke, Kaz and Martin Cranie played, there’s a great deal of work gone on behind the scenes with James Redden and his staff, physically, with Gary Brabin and Inigo Idiakez, and tactically.
“For them to give that level of performance, it doesn’t come easy.
“There’s a long road to getting people fit in every single area, the mentality of the players needs to be there.
“They need come in, have that understanding and desire to go and perform and I said, before the game, ‘make sure you’re on the winning team’ because that’s where we get judged.
“The players that came into the team, so there are more winners in that team and let’s see where that takes us.”
Saturday’s triumph was Town’s second clean sheet on the spin and the first on their travels.
Jones said: “A clean sheet for Simon Sluga, Matty (Pearson), Sonny, Cam, Dan Potts, James Bree came on, ready to contribute.
“Glen Rea, Martin Cranie too, that’s where my satisfaction is.”
