Allan Campbell scored for the second successive game as Luton finally claimed their first league triumph in Reading this century and their first back-to-back wins of the season to extend their unbeaten streak to five games.
After despatching the league leading Cherries on Saturday in dramatic last-gasp fashion, this was more a case of after the Lord Mayor’s Show against a Royals side who are sitting one place above the drop zone with this their fourth successive defeat.
For Town, the Berkshire bolthole had been an unhappy hunting ground for 22 years, with their previous victory in the league coming last century, in 1999, and manager Nathan Jones said: “I thought we were excellent, our application was brilliant, we defended our box really well to limit their chances and we threatened at times. We had enough quality to win the game.
“We had a real element of control. The pitch was really poor, actually, and it was very tricky to move the ball, and every time we moved it into midfield it was kind of dangerous, but our front two were excellent all night, a real threat.”
Despite that, Town took the lead in a quiet first period without even registering a shot on target, after Tom Holmes headed Amari’i Bell’s cross into his own net.
Campbell, who opened his Hatters goalscoring account at the weekend against Bournemouth, put the seal on victory. While the midfielder’s first Hatters goal was notched in spectacular style, from 20 yards at Kenilworth Road, at the Select Car Leasing Stadium he found the net from considerably closer distance.
That owed much to striker Elijah Adebayo, who pressured the Royals into mistake and then teamed up with Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu before delivering the assist. Town’s top scorer did have the ball in the net, two minutes from time, but it was ruled out for offside, after the hitman tapped in Fred Onyedinma’s low ball.
And at the other end, Town keeper James Shea registered his fourth clean sheet of the campaign, while opposite number Luke Southwood kept out Kal Naismith, Campbell and Peter Kioso, who was recalled from his Milton Keynes loan on Tuesday to step in for James Bree, who miss his first Championship minutes this season, with a hamstring issue.
The victory saw the Hatters shoot up to 11th in the Championship with games in hand on all but one of the teams currently above them and, by virtue of a better goal difference, one place above Saturday’s opponents Sheffield United.
Jones said: “We’ve managed to jump into the top half with games in hand so it shows we are in a decent place, but we’ve got to go away from home again on the weekend. It’s a tough, tough schedule.”
But with the form they’re in Luton fans will be starting to think about the possibility of the play-offs and Jones said told BBC Three Counties: “We’ll go for whatever we can achieve. We’ve got no fear about where we are. We’ve got to add consistency to our game.
“We know we’re a good side. Fulham, since they came to us, have gone on a cricket spree. But, when they came to us, they were very fortunate to get away with a 1-1 draw. It was a wonderful game and it shows the levels that we’re at.
“Then, Bournemouth are arguably the second, if not the best team in the league, and we were outstanding. So, we know we’re a good side, it’s just adding that consistency.
“Our numbers back up our belief and that’s important. There’s a long way to go. We’re in a real good place and we’ve got 35 points at just over halfway, it shows we’re in a good place. We believe we should have more but we won’t be greedy, we’ll be realistic.”
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