The central defender returned to the starting line-up after having to sit out the last couple of matches since a blow to the head forced him off at half-time of the win at Cardiff.

Having impressed at the back, the ex-West Ham and Hull man then brought delight - and relief - to the Kenny crowd with a stunning second half strike to make it 2-0 after Carlton Morris' sixth goal in as many matches had given Town the lead.

“I’m delighted to be back in the team,” said the 26-year-old. “I feel like I’ve had a bit of bad luck due to injuries and illness, but I’m glad to be back and to get my first goal in the league, I’m delighted.”

On his brilliant 67th-minute strike from 25 yards, he added: “I stepped in and got past the winger, it opened up for me and I thought ‘Why not?’ Especially with my left foot! Lucky enough it went in.

“The way the game was going, we were all over them and it was just a matter of time before we got that second goal and eased that little bit of pressure.

“I’m the one who got it, so I’m happy for that, but it was what we needed at the time. We maybe could have got another one after that, but I thought after that goal, it helped us see the game out.”

The win put the Hatters on 13 points in 11th place, with three victories, four draws and three defeats from their opening ten matches.

The cliché goes that the league table starts to take real shape from this point on, and last season’s play-off campaign kicked off in exactly the same way, the only difference being that Town were ninth in the table with a goal difference that was one better than today’s +1.

Burke – like manager Nathan Jones – believes his side should be higher in the table based on the way they have performed so far, which can only bode well going forward.

“I’ve said before that I think it’s been a bit of a slow start to the season for us,” he said. “Our performances have deserved more, and I feel that we deserve more points as well, but we’ve got to keep moving forward. It’s a big home win for us today, and hopefully we can move on to the next one.

“We should definitely have more points in the table than we have now, but that’s in the past now and obviously we’ve got to focus on the future games and focus on picking up those points. The lads gave it all today and we’ve got a nice little break now to recover well.”