Luton Town returned to winning ways as they squeezed out fellow early strugglers Hull City 1-0 at Kenilworth Road.

A goal by Mark McGuinness just after the half-hour mark decided a tight contest at a wet Kenilworth Road, with the result seeing the Hatters leapfrog the Tigers in the Championship table.

Victory was Luton’s second win in a row at home, with the result seeing Rob Edwards’ side move up to 16th in the table after 16 games ahead of tricky-looking trips to Leeds and Norwich in the upcoming week.

Luton had entered the contest on the back of a heavy defeat by Middlesbrough in their last outing, which was a defeat that had raised the pressure on Edwards after a slow start to the campaign.

Against a similarly slow-starting Hull, very few opportunities came easily for either side, with half-chances the order of the day under a grey sky on a weekend where the UK has had stormy weather.

Hull had a lot of possession but struggled to trouble Thomas Kaminski in the Luton goal, while the Hatters had won a few early corners without yielding an opportunity.

A goal would eventually come Luton’s way just after the half-hour mark, as a Shandon Baptiste corner was flicked on by a defender to McGuinness, whose strike duly crashed past Ivor Pandur in the Hull goal.

The strike was McGuinness’ first since his summer move to Luton, and came in a week after he’d made his international debut for the Republic of Ireland.

Hull nearly equalised late in the half, only for Joao Pedro to miss the target when well placed.

Elijah Adebayo fluffed his lines from close range early in the second half, before Pedro missed a golden chance for Hull when he hit the post from Regan Slater’s cross into the box.

Luton struggled to create opportunities after the break and Hull were causing the home side bother. Kasey Palmer would see a strike denied by Kaminski later in the half, before sub Chris Bedia missed the target in the final minute of the 90.

Palmer came close again in injury time, as his deflected strike had to be repelled by Kaminski.

But the Hatters ultimately did just enough to grind out the win, grabbing some respite for Edwards with their three points ahead of Wednesday night’s trip to Elland Road.