Richard Money believes the first half performance from his side in their 1-0 victory over Wrexham was the best he'd seen at Kenilworth Road since he took over in November.

After Tom Craddock's goal had given the Hatters a first half lead his team clung on in the face of strong second half pressure from Dean Saunders' side.

And the Town boss was pleased with an overall display full of determination and discipline that was enough to earn themtheir first home clean sheet in the league since 12th September.

"I thought that the first half was arguably the best since I have been manager," he told the media in the wake of the narrow win.

"We were switched on, got bodies in the right holes and were concentrated.

"I thought we pressed the ball really well in the first half and thankfully we defended well in the second.

"We didn't expect a team of Wrexham's quality to just lie down and allow us to dominate for 90 minutes.

"They were always going to have a good spell, and we had to defend really well, properly and professionally, especially in the last 20 minutes to make sure we won the game.

"Of course we wanted a second goal but Wrexham are a good team.

"You look at their goals for and goals against record and it shows they've been involved in some pretty tight matches - apart from they played us.

"It was never going to be a big scoreline when you've got two of the best teams in the league playing each other."

Money was left purring at the quality at the other end following Craddock's winner - his fourth in three matches - a belter of striker worthy of winning any game and his 14th of the season.

"It was a great goal," he said. "An absolutely top-quality finish.

"The defensive work from us to get the ball back was great and we've hit them on the counter-attack.

"He's taken his man on 1v1, twisted one way and then the other and smashed it in the top corner.

"If you that in the Premier League everyone would be drooling over it."

But it was the importance of a clean sheet - that the manager spoke about in his pre-match press meeting on Friday - that pleased him the most about the performance.

"It was a deserved clean sheet," he said. "Even under strong pressure in the second half we've had no real alarms or dangers and I thought we defended really well as a group.

"I thought first half we were excellent both offensive and defensively. We created opportunities that we couldn't quite get on the end of.

"But I said that clean sheets at home will get us the results we need."

With Stevenage in FA Trophy action and with Oxford held to 1-1 draw with Kettering, the Hatters moved to within five points of the top of the BSP.

But Money, is only concentrating on cementing his side's position in the top five.

"We can't control what happens above us," he said. "Our concern is to put some daylight between us and teams below as quickly as we can and not worry about what's happening above us.

"Kidderminster on Tuesday will be a different game, another 90 minutes that will start 0-0 plus they've not been doing too badly recently."

Money made two changes to his side that beat Forest Green in the week with Matthew Barnes-Homer one of those changes.

And the Town boss had some sad news to tell the press the reason why the striker was missing from the squad.

"I've got some sad news," he said. "Matthew unfortunately lost his father after a fight against a serious illness last night.

"People should realise that he's been battling against it for some time but Matthew's kept his council and wanted to carry on playing and full credit to him.

"We need to give him the support he needs and we'll do that."

Our thoughts and best wishes go out Matthew and his family at this time.