Buckle praises Town’s belief as Macclesfield swept aside

Hatters boss Paul Buckle praised his side’s belief as they picked up first home win of the season by hammering Macclesfield Town 4-1 yesterday, writes Mike Simmonds.

Jake Howells set Town on their way after just 40 seconds, while Andre Gray, Scott Rendell and Stuart Fleetwood sealed a win that took Luton up to third in the table.

Hatters had endured a thoroughly frustrating 90 minutes at home last weekend, losing 1-0 to AFC Telford, while drawing 2-2 with Gateshead in their previous encounter at Kenilworth Road, so Buckle was delighted to send their fans away happy.

He said: “I was very pleased to have beaten a team by four goals, a team that’s riding high, second in the league off the back of two home games where we haven’t got the result.

“But we believed. We believed after the disappointing result last time out, we picked up three big points on Monday and in the end we’ve run away with it.”

Howells goal so early on gave Luton the perfect start and it was just reward for their positive outlook as Buckle continued: “That’s what happens when you’re on the front foot. We’re trying to get that into the team, we’ve done it away from home and we’re desperate for the lads to show the fans what we can do.

“Jake was in the right place, he wasn’t back or being too negative, he smashed it home and it gave us a great platform to kick on and that’s we did.”

Leading 2-0 at the break, Town did come in for some nervy moments in the second half, conceding a goal moments after the interval, and it’s something the boss knows needs addressing.

He added: “Two-nil is always a precarious scoreline whether you’re winning or losing, it’s a dodgy old scoreline.

“We didn’t do ourselves any favours at the start of the second half and paid the penalty. We’ve got to start the second half better.”

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