Luton Town: John Still impressed with youth after Bristol City cup shock

Jack Marriott stole the limelight with a brace in Tuesday night’s 3-1 Capital One Cup shock against Bristol City but Luton manager John Still chose to salute the whole of his youthful side.

The 20-year-old’s double and a strike for veteran forward Paul Benson dumped the Championship new boys out at the first round stage at Kenilworth Road to give the boss a selection headache ahead of Saturday’s League Two visit of Oxford United, after they also knocked out Championship opposition in Brentford.

Still made eight changes from the side that drew 1-1 at Accrington in their season opener on Saturday and asked if the 11 – with seven stars under the age of 24 – had done enough to impress, he said: “I think they all have.

“Jack’s a young man that has done really well but it’s two games and I don’t really look at that. We like Jack. We tried hard to bring Jack here and we brought him here.

“I look at my team with Luke Wilkinson, Pottsy [Dan Potts], Steve O’Donnell, Pelly [Ruddock Mpanzu], Cameron [McGeehan] and Jack Marriott – I love that.

“We had all of the ingredients. Are we where we’d all like to be? No we’re not. We’ll grow into that, but it was a good game for us and against a good side.”

City boss Steve Cotterill fielded a strong side and Still matched up with his counterpart’s 3-5-2 formation, but they were under the pump in the first half and the Town chief admitted it took his side 25 minutes to work out Bristol’s fluid style.

“We moved the ball very quickly and I thought the first [Marriott] goal was a classic example of that,” Still said.

“We moved the ball from one end of the pitch to the other and because of the fluidity in their team they sometimes become a bit unbalanced. We did move it quick, it was a good finish so I’m pleased with that.

“From then on I thought we were all right. I’m not saying always in control but we always had a bit there to counter what they could produce. The quality of our goals was first-class.

“[Mark] Tyler made a good save in the second half and I thought they might have scored another goal there, but we’ve hit the post and Tyler wasn’t really flying around making save after save because I thought we defended ever so well. The three centre halves were the catalyst of our performance.”