The Hatters returned to winning ways in style at Kenilworth Road with a five-star show against high-flying Coventry.

After six matches without victory, four of which were excellent draws, the Town tore into the Sky Blues from the off with Elijah Adebayo winning and then netting a penalty inside the opening two minutes.

The striker moved to the top of the scoring charts with a fifth of the season before half-time, after man-of-the-match Harry Cornick and Luke Berry had made it 3-0 by the half-hour mark for the second home game in a row.

Adebayo netted that fourth deep into eight minutes of first-half injury-time, allowed after a long delay for a Coventry supporter to receive treatment in the away end immediately after the second goal by Cornick, who added gloss to a brilliant individual performance with the fifth just before the hour.

Manager Nathan Jones made three changes from the side that had lost, but played impressively at Bournemouth on Saturday, with Glen Rea starting in the league for the first time this season and captain Sonny Bradley returning from injury to make his second appearance of the campaign.

After coming on at half-time against the league leaders in the previous match, Amari’i Bell started on the left and there was a welcome return to the matchday squad for Allan Campbell following his injury at Blackburn Rovers earlier this month.

The Hatters made a dream start when Adebayo beat Jake Clarke-Salter on the Town right and drove towards the box, only to have his feet taken from under him by the City left wing-back. The striker picked himself up and tucked the penalty into the bottom corner, giving keeper Simon Moore no chance, for his fourth goal of the season.

Adebayo and striker partner Cornick were causing problems for the visitors' defence, but it was the latter's long throw from the right that created the next chance, Kal Naismith flicking on at the near post and Berry glancing a header inches wide after 15 minutes.

Two minutes later it was Rea who was driving the Hatters forward, whipping a cross in from the left but being taken out by City midfielder Gustavo Hamer in the process. The City midfielder was booked, and from the free-kick Town extended the advantage.

Bree slid a low ball into Naismith, who laid it back for Cornick to shoot. The opportunity was closed down and Cornick turned to lay it back to Clark, who stood up a lovely cross for Naismith to head back across goal for Cornick to complete his run and place his header past Moore into the bottom corner.

A length delay followed the goal, as paramedics and the Hatters' medical team gave treatment to a Coventry supporter in the Oak Road End, the fan eventually emerging on a stretcher and carried off to warm applause from both sets of supporters.

Play restarted with 26 minutes on the clock, and four minutes later it was three - Cornick doing brilliantly to latch onto Tom Lockyer's ball down the right, taking advantage of a mix-up between Clarke-Salter and his captain, Kyle McFadzean, and cutting it back into the path of Berry, who finished brilliantly on the run for his fourth of the season.

Clark was running riot in midfield, and it was the former Accrington man who rise highest to meet Bree's cross for the Town's next oppoprtunity, his header drifting a foot wide of the far post.

Coventry attempted to mount a response, Dominic Hyam volleying Todd Kane's deep cross into the side-netting, but it was the Hatters who went closest to extending their lead in the eight minutes of added time, Bradley heading straight at Moore and Cornick flashing a cross-shot across the face of the Sky Blues' goal, before Adebayo did.

We were in ther seventh minute of injury-time when Lockyer released Bree with a lovely clip down the right, the former Aston Villa full-back whipped the ball across for Cornick to flick it on for Adebayo to volley emphatically home for his fifth goal of the campaign.

Coventry made a change at the break, bringing on Ben Sheaf for Hamer to stiffen up the midfield, but it was the Town who were soon in attacking mode once more, Cornick's tireless running causing countless problems for the Coventry back four.

Berry shot from distance at the end of one fine passing move, then Ian Maatsen called Simon Sluga into action for the first time on 55 minutes, just before Cornick grabbed his second.

It owed much to Berry's determination, pinching the ball off Sheaf as Coventry looked to play out from the back from a free-kick awarded for Cornick being flagged offside. The ball broke to the forward, who took a touch and hit a left-footed shot into the top corner, via a deflection off Hyam as the City defender attempted to block.

Clark and Cornick combined to play the rampaging Bree into the box just after the hour, his low shot zipping across Moore's goal and a whisker wide of the far post, as the Kenny End eagerly awaited a sixth.

Clark and Berry were everywhere, with Rea anchoring the midfield with calm authority, and it was the former tracking back to win the ball with a sliding tackle that allowed Berry to create the game's next chance for Adebayo, whose 25-yard attempt for a hat-trick was good, but straight at Moore.

It was to be Adebayo's last action, as he left the pitch - along with Cornick - to a standing ovation with just under 20 minutes to go, to be replaced by Carlos Mendes Gomes and Cameron Jerome.

Both game changers went close to adding to the scoreline, Jerome with an over-head kick after Berry's shot was blocked, and Mendes Gomes with a poke towards the near post, deflected behind for a corner, after great link up play on the left by Naismith and Berry.

Jerome went close again in the final minute, but couldn't keep his header down from Naismith's pinpoint cross, and the Hatters had to settle for five.

Goals:

Town: Adebayo (pen) 3, 45+7, Cornick 18, 58, Berry 30

Att: 9,805 (1,032 away)