‘THERE WAS TIME-WASTING, NO FLOW TO THE GAME’ BEMOANS BOSS JONES

STOKE City are finally learning how to hold onto a lead after overcoming the threat posed by fellow play-off contenders Luton Town. Jacob Brown got the winning goal in the first half as the Potters rose to fifth in the Championship table thanks to their 1-0 win over the Hatters.

Leo Østigård had the first chance of the match after Brown headed Jordan Thompson’s corner down in his direction, but his effort was blocked from closerange.

There were no clear opportunities in the first half hour of action as the match seemed destined to be a stalemate, but Brown turned home Romaine Sawyers’ cross in the 34th minute. The second half transpired much like the first, with no clear cut chances until the 68th minute. Fred Onyedinma sent in a cross for Admiral Muskwe, whose header crashed off the crossbar. Mario Vrancic came close to doubling the lead when his corner was tipped over the bar in the 78th minute. In the end City didn’t need the extra buffer as they saw out their second win - and clean sheet - in succession heading into the international break.

Michael O’neill said: “Brilliant, a great response. You can feel it in the dressing room. We had to dig deep on Wednesday night and had to dig deep again.

“To have those back to back away from home and get two wins is a big plus for us.”

Hatters boss Nathan Jones, left, claimed his former club had only created one chance to win the game. He said: “Apart from a corner chance in the first half but they showed one bit of quality. We’ve had a great opportunity with Muskwe’s header that went over the bar and we got in through the final third on numerous occasions without really putting the quality we needed and has been the difference. I thought we were the better side in the second half.

It was very difficult because they defended well, they have experience, have kept a clean sheet and they’ll be happy with that.

“There was time-wasting which meant there was no flow in the game, they came and did a good job and credit to them.”