Manager Kevin Blackwell was pleased to get the job done and to get some playing time into some of his squad players.

"I thought we started well, should have been two or three up and then the game became a little bit too easy and we switched off a little bit," he said.

"These games are difficult both for Northampton and for Luton. Trying to get excited about an empty ground is hard so it's up to the players to get the fans going and I thought we did that early on, then maybe stepped off the pace a little bit.

"I'm pleased to get quite a few players a game and that was the exercise really.

Brko's come off tired. He missed a bit of pre-season with an injury and he finished last season injured so it was always difficult for him to get going and I'm pleased to get him a game tonight.

"Then Don Hutchison, Paul McVeigh and Calvin Andrew and Paul Peschisolido? so there were quite a few who needed a run out and that's why I think it was a very good game for us.

"It's always nice to score goals and Pesch has been out with an ankle injury for the last two-and-a-half weeks. He hasn't been able to do any training whatsoever, so this was really a training session for him tonight.

"He took his goal very well indeed.

"I thought Jarek, the new centre half did OK. He's only a young kid but he looked strong and aggressive. People were saying: 'We need another centre half' but until I could get the right person I wasn't going to speculate on anything. I'm pleased with the boy and he's got a great attitude.

"He's a young Premier League player and with the likes of Sam Allardyce up there and Sammy Lee he's had a good grounding. And it's nice to have someone who can have the ball at their feet and play."