Graeme Jones admitted that Luton’s 3-0 Carabao Cup victory at Cardiff provided the revenge he was seeking for their last-gasp Championship defeat earlier in the month.
A Junior Hoilett own goal got Town up and running in a first half were they controlled 78 per cent of possession and then Alan Sheehan arrowed a free-kick into the top corner before forgotten man Jake Jervis finally opened his account for the club, 19 months after joining them.
At the Cardiff City Stadium, 17 days earlier, Hatters hearts were broken when former striker Isaac Vassell came of the bench to score a winner in the 96th minute.
This cup performance was completely different, however, and asked if there was an element of revenge, Jones said: “There was, if I’m honest, I wanted to come here and win.
“Looking back it’s easy to lose that way, moan and groan, or sometimes you lose and you learn. We learned from that experience. We leaned from West Brom and we learned from Sheffield Wednesday.
“I’m not saying we’re there yet, because they’ll be tests around the corner. We’re still learning but, psychologically, we feel that we’re at this level now. I can definitely say that we’ve grown game on game.
“I am really satisfied, it shows the strength of the club and the playing squad. We came here and I think we have been ourselves, I think there was a big improvement from two-and-a-half weeks ago, that’s the only thing I wanted to measure.
“Obviously, the lads who have come in have played 90 minutes, I feel like we’re in a really strong position.
“I treat everyone the same – there is no first team and second team. There’s players that are in form, players that have to work to get into form, players that are behind physically and behind mentally.
“But this competition is good for us, we need to be competitive in everything we do, I wasn’t coming here to lay down tonight so we can concentrate on the Championship. “No, it’s the opposite, it’s healthy for the football club, we want to go as far as we can go, as long as it doesn’t hinder us in the league.”
It was an impressive result, considering Jones made ten changes to the side that beat Barnsley 3-1 at the weekend and the manager said: “Obviously, we have got a game Saturday (against Huddersfield), I was conscious of that, that’s why the changes were made.
“The boys that came in showed that they’re totally confident and anytime that they’re required, they’ll be ready. Games like tonight help you prepare for that.”
