Still hails ‘important’ U’s draw as Town target the title

It kept Luton 15 points ahead of their nearest rivals at the top of the Skrill Premier, but Still was reticent to reveal how key the result might be.

He said: “I’ll let you know when the season’s over! I don’t know, but it was an important one tonight.

“I think for both sets of players, whatever I say they’d look on this as a really important, a really crucial game maybe.

“I think to maintain the 15 points and our goal difference is a massive thing at this stage of the season and I think for them, they might have looked at it thinking if we can make the 15 points 12 points, and we’ve got a game in hand we can make it nine points, we will be putting them under pressure?

“Of course they would and I understand that. Different emotions for different people, but I think the most important thing of it is for Luton.

“We’ve come here in a high tension game and we’ve got a point and we’ve got to be delighted with that.”

Full-back Scott Griffiths though was more cagey in his response, as he said: “It was no more or less important than any other point we will get this season.

“No disrespect to any of the teams here, but whether you are playing top or bottom you still need to show the same desire to win games.”

The result extended Luton’s record unbeaten league run to 27 games, as Griffiths continued: “It’s good form at the moment, the boys are confident and so they should be.

“They’ve been playing well on good pitches, bad pitches against teams that sit back against you and tonight (a team that) try and go for the win, but all in all I think we’ve been playing well.”

Pragmatic Still was surprisingly calm after the final whistle and was keen to keep level-headed until the job is done.

“I don’t get carried away, I really don’t,” he said.

“I never get too high, I never get too low because this is football and if you allow yourself to get one or the other it can not be right for you.

“I take all of that in my stride, I’m very proud of our players today, we’ve still got to go and get points to win this league, but I think we’ve shown for most of this season we have all the attributes to do that, we’ve just got to make sure we keep performing.

“I come down quickly because I don’t allow myself to stay too high, but I wouldn’t have allowed myself to stay too low.”

Goalscoring hero on the night Mark Cullen was pleased Town had been able to keep their unbeaten run going and continue to keep the U’s at bay.

He said: “It’s an unbelievable run, but we have to look again to Monday now and try and maintain again.

“It keeps them at bay, but we came into this game like we go into any other game.

“We wanted the win and, to be fair, the fact we haven’t won it is quite disappointing, but we’ve got a good point and have to build on it now.”

But both Cullen and Griffiths were full of praise for Luton’s travelling army of 2,286 fans that backed them all evening at the Abbey.

Cullen said: “The fans have been fantastic all season and to see that many come to an away game is unbelievable for this level of football and they celebrate with you.

“They’re there every game and it’s a pleasure to have them.”

Griffiths echoed his sentiments, saying: “They were absolutely fantastic, I’ve never seen anything like it and may it long continue. I couldn’t ask anything more of that lot to be honest.”

The experienced 28-year-old defender is in a rich vein of form after an indifferent start to the season and believes desire has helped to see him through games.

On whether it was the best form of a career that has seen him play well over 300 games, he added: “It’s hard to say to be honest, I can’t remember all of the games I’ve played, it must be a good few hundred.

“I think I’m playing all right at the moment. I think I probably could play a bit better, but if I’m being quite critical, I’m always striving to be better and try and be stronger and fitter, so we’ll see how this season pans out for me.

“If you’ve got the right desire for it then you find it from somewhere.

“The will to win is extremely good in there (the changing room) and the desire is brilliant and it shows on and off the pitch and around the training ground, it’s fantastic and a great feeling.”