Martin Ling hailed United's 3-1 FA Trophy win against Luton Town as his side's best performance for some time.

In front of a disappointing crowd hit by the enforced early kick-off and all-ticket restriction, Ling was able to recall fullbacks Dan Gleeson and Anthony Tonkin, while Danny Potter and Ling himself shook off the effects of a bug that kept them away from training for the last two days.

"Fortunately the ones who were most affected by the virus this week - the two goalkeepers and myself - haven't got to run too far," he joked afterwards, adding "We played well and that was a good performance.

"It was good in the first half and professional in the second half just to see it out. You know when you play a team as good as Luton they're going to have a spell in the game, but I think that was as good as we've played for a long while.

"It's pleasing that we've passed the ball as well," he noted. "We talk about 'pass with a purpose' and I think we've done that and shown ourselves to be the better side today."

It was a compliment to United that Luton named the same side that knocked Rotherham United out of the FA Cup on Tuesday, then changed their system and both centre-backs at half-time, when trailing 3-0 to Danny Crows sixth minute opener and Chris Holroyd's two well-taken goals.

"You don't know how teams are going to take the Trophy as a competition," said Ling. "We're always going to treat it as a serious competition, but they've got a bigger squad than us that they could have utilised and chose not to.

"But for them to change their two centre halves and change their system to what we were playing, you always feel like you've won the day as a manager when that happens. Today we won the day and the strikers got three goals between them.

"They were well-taken goals too," continued the U's boss, who recalled Holroyd after leaving out United's leading scorer last week at Eastbourne.

"I left Danny Crow out a few games ago and he's come back and answered me, and I left Chrissy out last week because I feel sometimes you just need to freshen them up, and today it's worked," he said.

"As Chrissy came off I said 'that's how you answer a manager that leaves you out' and that's what I'm looking for from players.

"He went five games without a goal, and I'm not saying he looked stale but sometimes it gives you that little spurt and they need that little reminder that sometimes you need to work without goals and the goals will come, like they did today for him."

Despite the 3-0 lead at half-time, no one could forget that the U's were leading 2-0 at the same stage in September's league game and went on to lose 4-3, and Ling said he referred back to that game in his half-time talk.

"It was just a reminder of how we'd got there and a reminder of what happened here against them last time, just to keep them on their toes and keep them professional, and to keep the ball and pass it," he revealed. "At stages we could have done that a little bit better, but that's being picky and that performance was as pleasing as it's been for a while.

"In December that's now three games without defeat and we're going into the next four games against teams who are all in the top four - Oxford, Stevenage twice and Mansfield - so it will be a real test. But we've proved today against a good Luton side that we've got something in the dressing room and that will be tested in the next four games."

The draw for the second round takes place on Monday and Ling is hoping for another home game: "Anyone at home would be nice. It's a competition that gets serious towards the end; I think you've got to treat with respect any competition that ends up with a Wembley final, and we always will do."

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