Luton Town 4-0 Preston North End: Hatters up to fifth after easy win
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Luke Berry scored his first Championship goals for Luton since 29 September
Luton Town climbed back into the Championship play-off spots with a comfortable win over Preston North End.
Two goals from Luke Berry and one from Fred Onyedinma made it 3-0 by half-time before Bambo Diaby put into his own net after the break.
The result was Luton's seventh victory in their last 10 league games and moved them up to fifth.
For Preston, it was only a third loss in 17 league games under Ryan Lowe and they remain 14th, eight points shy of the play-offs.
But it left Lowe furious and promising to give a full refund, external to North End supporters who had made the 189-mile journey from Lancashire to Kenilworth Road.
After being knocked out of the top six with defeat by play-off rivals QPR on Sunday, Nathan Jones' men came flying out of the traps.
From James Bree's deep cross, Elijah Adebayo mis-hit his shot, but when it fell to Berry he calmly placed his finish beyond North End goalkeeper Daniel Iversen for his first Championship goal since the end of September.
Cameron Archer came close to an equaliser before substitute Onyedinma scored five minutes after replacing the injured Reece Burke, turning home at the back post from Bree's deep free-kick.
The points were then wrapped up before the break when Berry squeezed in a back-heel at the near post from Harry Cornick's cutback.
The one-way traffic continued after the interval as Peter Kioso hit the bar before Iversen denied Amari'i Bell only for the rebound to ricochet off the unfortunate Diaby into the net.
It capped a bad night for Preston as they suffered their heaviest defeat of the campaign.
Luton Town manager Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"I'm so proud of the players. I told the players tonight to just stay in the hunt and do whatever it takes to get a result, but I thought we were outstanding.
"We lost so many players, but this group rolls with the punches. We've had about 14 weeks doubled up, and that's why we're picking up so many injuries as it's relentless and the Championship is a crazy league.
"But what a response. What a performance. It just shows this is a class group."
Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"We weren't good enough from start to finish.
"I can only apologise and we'll reimburse the fans their money back, their hard-earned money as they have travelled down on a cold Wednesday night when they might have been better staying in with their feet up.
"The performance was nowhere near the levels of what I expect as a Preston North End manager."