Mads Andersen and Jordan Clark scored with Luton’s first two shots on target this season to earn Town their first victory at Peterborough United for 21 years and continue their 100 per cent start to the League One campaign.
After a goalless first half, which saw a starting debut from new striker signing Jerry Yates, Town improved and their Danish centre back scored his first goal since notching in the Premier League against West Ham almost two years ago, heading home with a diving effort on the hour mark from George Saville’s corner.
But the victory was sealed in the 85th minute after a horror show moment from the hosts when defender George Nevett played a poor backpass to keeper Nicholas Bilokapic, whose first touch with his wrong foot was heavy enough to allow Nakhi Wells to charge down the ball and then tee up Clark to walk it into the net.
It was Wells’ second successive assist – both five minutes from time – after he provided the cross for the own goal winner on opening night against AFC Wimbledon.
The manager said: “That’s the relentless nature, that’s the identity we want to have. we weren’t happy at half-time as a group. The boys weren’t happy with where it was at. I certainly wasn’t happy. We had words and they reacted in the right way. I was so proud of that performance. Second half, that’s what we want to be. And the boys delivered. I’m really pleased with the group.”
Impressively, it was Town’s second successive shutout, though keeper Josh Keeley had slightly more to do as Posh managed two shots on target, albeit comfortable for him, compared to the zero he faced last week.
But with boss Matt Bloomfield saying earlier in the week that his Hatters side is still a work in progress, two solid and economical, if unspectacular performances, and back-to-back victories is plenty to build with moved back into the League One automatic promotion places, if only for a couple of hours at least.
The post-match celebrations saw the nearly 4,000 travelling Town fans urge the manager to bring out the fist-pumps and he obliged.
“You always want to win, but especially when there’s such a big away following, you want to win even more, to say thank you to the supporters for buying their tickets, making the trip over here. And yeah it was amazing, wasn’t it?” Bloomfield told the BBC.
“Behind the goal and the reception we got at the end, I really want to build that connection, that relationship with our supporters. A huge thank you to to those guys because it was a little bit stodgy than we wanted at times on Friday, we all spoke about that and we wanted it to be better.
“And this is still a new group. I really have to quite try and really say the fact that this is a new group, still learning to knit together. In terms of their conduct, they’ve been fantastic and we want to keep evolving and keep making strides forward. And I think we’ve done that in the second half today.”
