Nathan Jones wants his Luton side to turn “consistency” into “cutting edge” for the final six games of the Championship season, which he has labelled “massive” in the bid to beat the drop.
The Hatters have managed an excellent haul of five points from their first three games of the restart, remaining unbeaten and taking points of promotion-chasing Preston, Swansea and Leeds.
It had seen them slash the six point deficit at the foot of the table to two, only to see relegation rivals Huddersfield and Hull – who they still have to face in the final six games, along with Barnsley – both win to extend the gap back to four points, ahead of the visit of Reading tomorrow.
For a team that have the worst defensive record in the division , Town have looked a far more resolute proposition, with Tottenham loanee Cameron Carter-Vickers excelling, while they’ve scored just once in each game.
“Defensively, I think we’ve been very good,” said Town boss Jones, adding: “At the minute we’ve only had to score one goal to get a result, whether that is a point or a win, which is always good to do because it means you’re very consistent.
“We’ve shown consistency, we’ve got to show that consistency but then find a little bit more cutting edge.
“Cutting edge will come with games and with sharpness but we’re hoping that arrives pretty soon.
“We’ve been to some tough places, played against some teams that are possession dominant as well, so we’ve had to make sure we have been very organised and defend well and I think they have been absolutely outstanding.
“We have to continue that, we have six absolutely massive games, they were big games the others, but these are massive now.
“We’ve given ourselves a platform but what we can’t do is suddenly think the hard work is done or we’ve done this or done that, we have to continue because these are big, big games.”
Jones was famed for his diamond midfield formation that won back-to-back promotion out of the bottom two divisions of the Football League, but his return has seen more variation with three different systems.
Jones said: “It’s important because at League Two, League One level, we didn’t really change too much.
“We made changes in game but we always believed that we were capable playing one shape and dominating a game, not just by winning, dominating.
“It’s a different level now so you have to be very tactically astute, we felt we have been, apart from the first 20 minutes against Preston, I think we’ve been good, our shapes been good.
“How we’ve pressed, our organisation, our possession, we’ve been decent. When you go to Leeds you’ve got to be right at it and I thought we were.
“Tactically we’ve been sound and, again, it’s about finding something that is really suitable for this squad and then go on with that, because we’ve now got a pre-season to work, six games to work, trial and error.
“The trial and error has been in league games against top opposition.”
