Luton manager Rob Edwards felt his team got dragged into a battle while trying to see out their 1-0 victory at Millwall as their winless run finally came to an end.
The Hatters had not tasted victory since they defeated Bournemouth in the Premier League on April 9, a run that took in 11 games and their relegation from the top flight.
Edwards actually felt his team had played better in previous games this season, but this time they were on the right end of the result thanks to a sweet early strike from defender Teden Mengi.
Luton struggled in the closing stages, however, and were indebted to two big saves from goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski to prevent a resurgent Millwall side from snatching a point.
Edwards said: “In the end, they sort of wore us down and there were a lot of long free-kicks and long throws.
“It just became a real battle, which was disappointing, to be honest.
“They know it’s important to try and win a game when you’re 1-0 up and it becomes a bit more frantic, and the fans are having a go, and obviously the whole feel and emotion around the place is tense when the win is on the line.
“It is pleasing to do it in the end and we needed our goalkeeper a couple of times, which was disappointing, from the corner and from one of own giveaways, a couple of brilliant saves from Thomas.
“But when you come here you have to show some character, some fight, which we asked for at the very beginning, and we showed that.
“People had been making out a lot that we hadn’t won for a bit, but the monkey’s off our back now.”
Luton led after 10 minutes when Liam Walsh laid the ball off for Mengi, who produced a terrific first-time finish from outside the box for just his second career goal.
Tahith Chong almost doubled the Hatters’ lead when he outmuscled George Honeyman before his shot on the turn came back off a post.
Millwall rallied in the last 10 minutes, with a poor pass by Pelly Ruddock leading to Duncan Watmore putting Macauley Langstaff through, only for Kaminski to deflect his effort behind.
The Belgian then made sure of victory in the sixth minute of stoppage time by getting a strong hand to keep out Shaun Hutchinson’s header from George Saville’s corner.
Millwall boss Neil Harris said: “The press was really good, I’m never going to question the application of my players at Millwall, but the application and desire was there, there were some real moments of quality in our team today.
“We mixed up – we knew how to play direct, but we went round the outside and through the thirds and played with some real flair at times.
“I thought our movement was excellent, but the final end produced was what went missing for us today and that is the difference, unfortunately, at all levels of football, and that was the difference today.
“What I will also add is I was slightly disappointed with the manner of the goal – I thought we could have done more to keep the ball out of our net.
“We gave them the utmost respect, as always when a team comes out of the Premier League, but I thought we were the better team.”
