‘We’re playing our way now,’ says Jones as fine form highlights Hatters’ evolution

Nathan Jones says his side have now evolved to the point that they can play the Luton way against  on rivals, just like they did in the lower leagues.

Town, who host basement boys Barnsley tonight, are on a promising run of form that has seen them taken 17 Championship points out of the last 24, as well as claiming two FA Cup victories by scoring seven and conceding none.

And in this spell they’ve remained unbeaten against Fulham, Bournemouth and Blackburn, who were in the top two at the time, arguably even sensing that they could’ve beaten all three, rather than just the Cherries. 

In this run, that stretches back to the start of December, Town have scored 19 times, are currently on a hat-trick run of clean sheets in all competitions and this is proving to be the evolution in action that Jones has been talking about this term.  

“We’re playing our way now,” he said, adding: “Sometimes we used to change for opposition and think we can match them and outwork them. Now, we back our processes. It’s pretty much what we used to do at League Two and League One level. 

“We’ve had to be a little more pragmatic in the Championship and show that we can compete at the level. We’ve evolved nicely, I think. We’ve evolved over time, and now we’re in a position where we are this certain type of team. 

“You can always add more quality and a little bit more of something, but we like where we are at the minute.

“We are showing good consistency, we’re in a good position, but we can’t rest on that because the evolution process doesn’t stop.

“You don’t suddenly evolve and then you’ve finished. We have to keep evolving and that’s a long process.”

Town are fourth in the Championship form table over the last eight games, which has been all the more impressive because they didn’t dip despite an enforced Christmas break due to Covid. 

Jone said: “I think it’s a massive thing. We didn’t know we were going to have a month break. If you know and you can plan, then it might be a lot easier, but we didn’t know that. One game got called off, then another got called off and then two got called off. 

“So, it was a little bit disjointed, but that’s a credit to all the medical and sport science stuff we have here. The training programme we have, so that we’re able to do it. 

“We came out and were nowhere near our best against Harrogate (in the FA Cup), but we won 4-0. You don’t take results lightly in any level that you play at, so to be able to do that, then to go again against Bournemouth and another three against arguable one of the best sides in the Championship, it just shows that we’ve got real good decent levels. 

“I’m very pleased with that, so, yes, we’ve been in good form, but we have to continue that. There’s not point being sporadic. We want to have that consistency now.”