Jacob Brown’s second of season was enough to see off in-form Cardiff City and leapfrog the Welsh side in the Championship table.
Slim though the record is, when the forward has scored this term, Town have won and kept a clean sheet.
His first came against arch-rivals Watford four games ago, which was the Hatters’ last triumph. On that occasion he replicated former team-mate Gabriel Osho’s weeping celebration, but here Brown unveiled the Griddy dance move.
It was a finish well worth celebrating as his free header from Alfie Doughty’s corner crashed in off the underside of the bar, with the division’s top chance creator racking up another assist.
“When you get that delivery bang on, we’re a threat because we’ve got people arrive in the right areas. I’m really pleased for Jacob,” said Rob Edwards.
The only worry for the manager is that Doughty limped on bravely to see out added time, after refusing a stretcher to tough it out for the team.
Tough was exactly the viewing in the first half, which the visitors shaded, but didn’t threaten. But a muted Kenilworth Road crowd roared into action when Luton were denied a penalty when Callum Chambers pawed away a Carlton Morris cross.
The captain led the vehement protests and got a booking for his trouble and boos rang around Kenilworth Road for referee Matt Donohue at the interval.
“I’ve seen it back and it was (a penalty). His hand is up and he’s sort of knocked it. He would never have done it on purpose, but it’s there and Brownie’s right in front of goal then to just put it in,” said Edwards.
“We should have had a penalty and I don’t complain very often if at all, but that’s two home games in a row, we should have had penalties there. We didn’t get it.
“I know it’s difficult to see those things. They happen quickly, but that certainly would have helped us. Potentially would have.”
Edwards added: “I talked about that at half time actually (saying), ‘tonight could be about fine margins now, lads’ with the game not completely one-sided.
“I felt like we were a the more dominant team was where the game was. But clearly they had a threat and they were still dangerous. The game was in the balance, so tonight was going to be about fine margins.”
The deciding factor came on 57 minutes, when Brown pounced. Three minutes after his header, Brown was withdrawn for Elijah Adebayo had had been ill this week and the striker put in a superb centre forward’s display, relieving pressure and causing plenty of problems for the City rearguard.
So too did Shandon Baptiste who was introduced soon after and, as he did against West Brom on Friday, exerted some all-important quality and control in the centre of the park alongside the magnificent Tom Krauß.
“I think we played well,” said Edwards said, adding: “But you could see that Cardiff are playing well at the moment. They’ve got a good rhythm, a confidence and a belief there. Obviously, the run that they’ve been on, and some very good players as well.
“I think after the first 15 minutes or so where we didn’t quite arrive quick enough in some of the pressing, after that we got to grips with it. We were more aggressive. We want it back a lot, and I think the game was where we wanted it to be.
“They might have the ball a little bit, but we’ve got to try and keep it as far away from our goal as possible, which we did.
“And I think then we certainly had the majority of the momentum, and the game was where we wanted it to take place.
“I think we deserved the win, but it was a night where it was important, of course.”
But despite their increased dominance Town couldn’t find the second goal which would have made for a comfortable finish.
Edwards said: “That was my only frustration, really, I think with some of that momentum that we really carried forward after the goal, built on the confidence and just wanted to try and take the game away from them.
“(There were) one or two really good moments there, instances where we could have like we could have killed them off, but we didn’t. Then we had to make sure we defended properly, and the good thing about tonight was we did defend well, and there was no big saves for Thomas to make.
“There was no big chances that they had, that was obviously really pleasing.”
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