Nathan Jones happy with Luton’s ‘complete performance’ against Walsall

Luton boss Nathan Jones felt his side delivered the “complete performance” during their 2-0 win at home to Walsall.

Glen Rea’s first goal of the season and Jorge Grant’s splendid free-kick sealed the Sky Bet League One victory.

Jones said: “I thought we were pretty dominant from start to finish, I asked them for a reaction after last week, because I felt we were just off the levels.

“Maybe I’m being too honest or maybe really harsh on my team, but I know the levels we put in week in, week out and I know where we want to end up, and last week we were a little bit off it.

“So I gave credit to Barnsley for that, but today we reacted in superb fashion.

“These are an excellent side on the road, haven’t been beaten, conceded seven goals and without being too disrespectful, we could have doubled that tally today.

“I thought we were excellent in terms of our application, how we worked, how we defended our box, as they’re a threat, they have a front four who are a real, real threat and that was as complete a performance as we’ve had here for a long, long time.”

The Hatters went ahead after 20 minutes when Grant’s corner was turned in from close range by skipper Rea.

In the second period, Luton made it 2-0 after 55 minutes as Grant fired in a superb 25-yard free-kick that flew past Liam Roberts and into the net.

James Justin hit the post for Luton, as the Saddlers offered little throughout, despite substitute Connor Ronan and Andy Cook cracking over from 25 yards.

Luton could have won by more but Danny Hylton dragged narrowly wide from inside the area, while James Collins headed over and Andrew Shinnie’s blast was parried away by Roberts.

Saddlers manager Dean Keates was frustrated to see his side’s unbeaten away record end with a whimper, saying: “We’re massively disappointed, that was nowhere near our standard.

“The lads are low in there and I’m not one for making excuses – I’ll take nothing away from Luton, they were the better team.

“We’ve conceded from set-pieces which are part and parcel of the game.

“We knew we’d come under pressure here and we wanted to start brightly and play on the front foot but we didn’t do that.

“It’s the first time we’ve failed to score away from home but it wasn’t down to the front men – we struggled to make an impact all over the pitch. As a group, we weren’t good enough.”