It was a wonderful performance – Nathan Jones delighted with Luton

Nathan Jones hailed the perfect away performance after Luke Berry’s second-half goal secured Luton a 1-0 win at Blackpool.

The midfielder, making his first Championship start since March, smartly fired home after Blackpool failed to deal with an Elijah Adebayo corner.

The result snapped a three-game winless run for the Hatters and catapulted them up to eighth and just two points off the play-offs.

“We were outstanding. The group put their bodies on the line and defended the cage superbly well,” Jones said.

“We’ve come away from home and won with masses and masses of adversity. We’ve got four centre-halves out injured and got people playing out of position.

“It was a wonderful performance, some fantastic defending and Luke Berry gets the goal. It was the perfect away performance. It was the perfect away day.”

Jones’ only complaint was Luton’s wastefulness in front of goal after they failed to convert several chances to put the game to bed.

“It’s (Blackpool) a difficult place to come too, but we could have extended our lead because I thought we had a lot of chances on the counter-attack,” he added.

“We could have made it far more comfortable, but 1-0 wins are sometimes the best ones. We had to play six minutes of added time and they were bombarding our box.

“But you just saw the character of our players, people who don’t wilt and always go with their runners.

“What a wonderful performance, I’m super proud of the group. But, to be fair, this group has been doing that for a hell of a long time.

“We lost pretty much every centre-half last year, but this time rolls with and rides with the punches. And whatever you ask them to do, they do.

“If we’d have had a little bit more quality in the first half we could have scored more, but in the second half we defended so well and got the goal. We competed admirably.”

Meanwhile, Blackpool manager Michael Appleton says he cannot wait for the season to pause while the World Cup takes place.

The Tangerines have lost their last two matches and are now 18th in the table, and Appleton admits they need a break.

“Clearly, I think we’re one of a hell of a lot of clubs that can’t wait to get to that point next week and hopefully pick up some points from now until then,” he said.

“There’s two ways to look at it, obviously we’re disappointed and frustrated to create the amount of chances and opportunities we did today, to not come away with anything.

‘We said to the players in there I’m not disappointed we’ve not picked a point up, we’re disappointed we’ve not picked up all three.

“The other side of it is can we be a little bit more clinical and not give them the opportunity to make the blocks.

“But at the same time I think you’ve got to give the opposition some credit and they defended for their lives and they’ve probably made eight maybe nine point-blank blocks within four, five, six yards of the goal today.

“There are positives, it’s difficult at this moment but certainly they’re the types of positives we have to take into Tuesday’s game.

“Obviously we’ll try and pick the bones out of it tomorrow and see where we are physically.

“Hopefully, come back after the break in a healthier manner.”