Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu scored a stunner in a man-of-the-match display against Bristol City to set Luton on their way to a first home win since August 31.
That made the midfielder the only Hatter in history to have scored in the every division from the Conference to the Championship, while Harry Cornick doubled their tally with an unerring one-on-one finish that, in League One and Two, he would fluff with frustrating regularity.
In the Championship, however, the pace-ace is discovering something of a ruthless streak and that was his fourth of the campaign and he is now one behind Town’s joint top goalscorer James Collins.
Then, at the death, City centre half Ashley Williams put through his own net from Ryan Tunnicliffe’s low cross.
And to cap it all, goalkeeper James Shea – making his Championship debut after Simon Sluga was dropped – kept Town’s first clean sheet in the division with a couple of important saves, including a worldie to keep out Rodri, preserving the two-goal lead.
The striker did have the ball in Luton’s net but it was ruled out for offside as the hosts recovered from a shaky opening ten minutes to keep Bristol at arm’s length.
An untried three-man defence, that included the returning Martine Cranie, was the key and the result of nine days work over the international break.
Izzy Brown, one of three changes, pulled the strings in an impressive first half where he saw a thunderbolt tipped onto the post by Daniel Bentley and was at the centre of Luton’s most promising passages of play.
Mpanzu was was just as effective in his role and he forced a low save with a drilled first half effort, and then built on that after the interval in some style.
Not known for his goalscoring exploits, the midfielder collected the ball just inside the City penalty area and, two step-overs later, he curled into the top corner. Keeper Daniel Bentley got nowhere near it.
It was a similar feeling for the Bristol No.1 when Brown picked out Cornick lurking on the halfway. Though James Collins bust a gut to get in position for an easy tap-in, Cornick only had eyes for goal and there’s now a very healthy and friendly goalscoring rivalry bubbling between the two.
Two unanswered goals would have been a wonderful scoreline, but Williams added to the deficit with a calamitous slide in front of a diving Bentley. It certainly made for a refreshing sight to see gaffe go in at the right end, as far as the Hatters are concerned.
And it did not flatter Town either, because this was far and away their best performance of the campaign against a Robins outfit that could have gone top with victory, having not lost since the opening week of the season.
They key now is to build on this, but beating an side with Bristol’s calibre, should imbue Graeme Jones’ men with confidence to face high-flying Fulham at Craven Cottage on Wednesday.
