Mpanzu, who captained the Hatters during the match at the Coventry Building Society Arena, made his return to the starting eleven after being absent for the previous four matches but was pleased to be back involved.
“We were all rusty today, Clarky was probably the best out of all three of us. There has been a lot of niggles and injuries with all three of us but we put in a shift today and we have to keep our levels up, recover right and go again Sunday.
“I wanted to be ready for Middlesbrough. It was touch and go so we wanted to make sure I was fully fit and ready for tonight and it proved today because we got the victory.”
Further on the match, the midfielder added: “We didn’t play well at all. It was a scrappy first half, we lost possession a lot and we didn’t start the game well. It was a good ball over the top and Elijah does what he does and has been doing all season. He slotted it and 1-0 away, we take that, it’s all about getting points on the board.
“We know that we can play better. We didn’t play well today but we got three points so we know going into Sunday that we have to play better and then we will win. Three points is what we wanted today, increase our points tally and hopefully we can maintain our position in the play-offs.”
As well as recording a valuable three points, it was the 15th league clean sheet the Town have kept this season, to which Pelly added: “We know that our defensive record speaks for itself, the amount of clean sheets we’ve had.
"Once we go ahead, we rarely lose. Al (Alex Palmer) is obviously here on an emergency loan, kept a clean sheet today and did very well. We have Locks who played well, Kal had to come out but whoever comes in always does a good job.”
Ahead of yet another big game at the weekend, Pelly admitted: “All the teams we are facing now, Middlesbrough at the weekend, Coventry today and QPR on Sunday, they are all in and around us so one win can shoot you up, one loss can take you down. We have to maintain performances, we can’t get too high because QPR will be a tough one on Sunday.”
