Bradley: We really had to dig in for our best display

Reds went ahead in the 12th minute through a Matt Harrold goal but pushed on by their sizeable home crowd, Luton fought hard for an equaliser.

The Hatters put the visitors’ defence under prsssure and even hit the post, crossbar and had a chance cleared off the goalline.

Bradley said: “I’m proud of the lads. We really had to dig-in today. For me it was probably our best performance of the season.

“We knew they were going to have near enough a full house, they had won four on the bounce.

“They played some quality stuff against us, let’s not get that wrong.

“They have got the ball wide, the full-backs have bombed on and they have got balls into the box but we were defensively sound and that isn’t just as a back-four; that’s the team from front to back.

“If we keep performing like that with ten games to go, let’s see how high we can finish!

“For now we will just look at Hartlepool but if we play like we did (at Luton) and defend like we did, with that desire, then I’m sure we can get three points.

“There’s quality players on the bench, keeping players out like Simon Walton and Josh Yorwerth says a lot.

“It’s nice for the manager to have options. Everyone who starts has got to put 100 per cent in every game and if they do that they’ll probably keep the shirt.

“They will be frustrated no doubt. I don’t know what the possession statistics were, or how many shots or how many crosses they had, but I can certainly assure you they did have more possession, they did have more shots and they did have more crosses.

“It was a perfect away performance. We allowed the ball to go wide and me, Ash (Jon Ashton) and Banj (Lanre Oyebanjo) were there every time.

“Luton will be frustrated but there are times when we have played well at home and teams have come and beaten us 1-0. It was a day when everyone had to be on their game. Luckily we had 11 or 13 players who were really on it.”