Kazenga LuaLua hailed Luton boss Graeme Jones’ more direct approach against Barnsley as the forward provided the creative spark that brought a first win of the Championship campaign.
The Hatters hit all three of their goals in a 30-minute blitz as they ran rampant all over Oakwell from Jacob Butterfield’s 82nd minute opener. James Collins added a second and Harry Cornick scored for the second successive Saturday.
But the speedy start owed a lot to a change of tactics that saw Town spend less time building from the back and instead try to hit LuaLua and Cornick at every opportunity. It meant less possession than in previous games, but provided more of a goal threat as they managed 14 shots to Barnsley’s five before the break.
“That’s the way the gaffer wanted to play,” said LuaLua, adding: “Obviously, it’s a different style but you’ve got to know your job. For me, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s my job. I’m a winger, Harry’s a winger and we need to create something for the team and it’s what we did.”
Cornick said: “There are different styles we need to play at home and play possession sometimes. Today we were counter-attacking a bit more, with me and Kaz staying high and trying to stretch the line.
“I thought we did that well and no two games will be the same. You’ve got to go into it with different tactics every game and he says every week, he’s got to pick a team which is going to win that week. Some games we might have to have different styles, different formations, different tactics, but today worked well.”
LuaLua only re-joined Luton a month ago despite admitting that the club was his first choice in the summer, the 28-year-old has been gradually working towards 90 minutes for Town and he featured for 81 at Oakwell with a man-of-the-match showing.
LuaLua said: “The more minutes I’m getting, I’m getting stronger and fitter. I know what the gaffer said because we spoke when I signed back, so we’re just taking more minutes and looking after my body which is what he’s doing and I’m happy with that.
“It was good to play. It’s minutes under my belt. It’s my job to create something for the team and I don’t mind the full back fouled me all the time. I enjoyed it actually. It was a nice battle.”
His performance saw the travelling Hatters faithful revive his “tell LuaLua, LuaLua…” song, which was a frequent feature of last term’s title triumph, as supporters changed one word to proclaim that that Luton were “getting promoted thrice”.
The Congolese forward said: “The fans have been brilliant for me since I’ve signed here from last season to this season, so I hope what I do on the pitch it pleases them. It’s nice to be back here. I’m delighted to be back.”
As well as being Town’s first three-pointer of the Championship season, the 3-1 win at Barnsley ended the Yorkshire side’s 29-game unbeaten home run in the league.
LuaLua said: “It was nice. Your first win of the season is always important, especially the last few weeks, we’ve been playing well but just been so unlucky not to kill the game. We came here today and saw the game out and I think we deserved to win today.”
Well done Luton….and we’ll done Graeme Jones. Keep the belief.