Hatters boss Richard Money was proud of his players' effort despite being held to a 1-1 draw with newly-promoted Newport County at Kenilworth Road.

Matthew Barnes-Homer may have missed the chance to win it for the Town when seeing a penalty saved but the manager was still pleased with the performance of his side.

"I don't think I could have asked us to play much better than that," he said afterwards. "On another day we come off the pitch winners.

"I'm proud of the players because I thought they were excellent and they needed to be.

"Newport I thought were a real credit to their club and supporters because they've worked their socks off for Dean Holdsworth.

"In fairness they had to because we could have won the game."

Barnes-Homer, who hit five goals in his previous three games will naturally be disappointed to miss from 12 yards but Money was philosophical.

"That's football," he said. "It's the life of a striker. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. Matthew knows he should have scored but he's been on fire before tonight.

"I said to the players we expected Newport to come out and play tonight and so it proved and no doubt they will be very pleased with their performance."

Still, the Town remain top of the table and in spite of dropped points the display still showed encouraging signs for the season ahead.

"We lost a goal but we came back within four minutes which is pleasing," Money added.

"We played some lovely stuff in the first half with some creative and incisive play. We could have been 4-1 up at half-time.

"In the second half they got more men behind the ball and we had to be patient, which we were, and created enough chances to win the game but we haven't and it's a point which we'll add to the total and move on from there."