The Hatters earned their fourth Sky Bet Championship away victory of the season with a battling performance against promotion hopefuls AFC Bournemouth.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored his second goal for the club as Town earned a huge three points – the first on their travels since victory against Rotherham United in November.
Manager Nathan Jones made one change and tweaked the formation for this afternoon’s match, with Luke Berry coming in for Kazenga LuaLua, and Glen Rea dropping between the centre-backs to create a defensive five.
The last time the two sides met at the Vitality Stadium, then named Dean Court, was in 2009 when the teams were 91st and 92nd respectively in the football pyramid.
Both have been on somewhat on a meteoric journey through the leagues since, but it was high-flying Bournemouth who had the first meaningful opportunity of this encounter.
Berry’s attempted header back to Simon Sluga was short enough for Josh King to latch onto it but in the end, it was a routine stop for the Croatian international.
The game changed course in the 25th minute as Jefferson Lerma was shown a straight red card after catching Tom Lockyer with his arm in an aerial challenge.
The Town centre-half was bandaged up but was forced off minutes later and replaced by Kal Naismith for his Hatters debut.
Nathan Jones’ side were rarely tested in the first period and came out for the second half in search for a goal against the ten-men of Bournemouth.
In a frantic two minute period, Kieran Dewsbury-Hall whipped a ball across the area which eluded everyone apart from Glen Rea at the far post, who powered a shot towards goal but it was blocked on the line by Steve Cook and deflected wide by Dominic Solanke.
The resulting corner led to Asmir Begovic making a remarkable double save, first thwarting Berry at close range and then Dewsbury-Hall’s curling effort from the edge of the box.
The action continued but it was the Cherries with the attacking intent as King played the ball through to Solanke, the latter fired low past Sluga but Dan Potts made a fantastic block in the nick of time to deny Bournemouth’s top scorer.
But much owed to their second half improvements, the Hatters took the lead with just over 20 minutes to play through Leicester loanee Dewsbury-Hall.
Cornick held the ball up brilliantly on the right-hand-side waiting for support and he found just that in the number 22.
Dewsbury-Hall opened up his body inside the area and curled a wonderful effort into the far corner.
Bournemouth were pushing forward in search of an equaliser and Sluga was alert to turn Rodrigo Riquelme’s shot away from goal with minutes to go.
But Town were resolute to reserve a fantastic clean sheet and three points to push them up into 12th position, heading into the midweek match against Brentford.
Town: Sluga; Bree (Pearson 87), Lockyer (Naismith 34), Bradley (C), Potts; Rea, Mpanzu, Berry, Dewsbury-Hall; Cornick (Clark 76), Collins (Hylton 87).
Subs not used: Shea, Moncur, LuaLua, Nombe, Morrell.
Goal: Dewsbury-Hall (67)
Yellows: Pearson, Hylton
Bournemouth: Begovic, Smith (Riquelme 82), Rico (Billing 71), S.Cook (C), Carter-Vickers, Stacey (Kelly 71) ; L.Cook, Lerma; King (Surridge 71) Brooks (Anthony 82); Solanke.
Subs not used: Dennis, Simpson, Mepham, Kilkenny.
Yellows: Billing
Red: Lerma
Referee: David Webb