QPR Under-18's extended their lead at the top of the Puma Youth Alliance League on Saturday with a narrow 1-0 victory over third placed Luton Town.

A solitary 62nd minute own goal gave Rangers a hard fought three points, and with second placed Gillingham without a fixture, Steve Brown's side now lead the Gills by seven points, with the Kent-based side already having played a game more.

In blustery and cold conditions at the Hatters' training ground, and with the strong wind in their favour, it was Brown's side who immediately took the initiative, taking control of the midfield and dominating possession.

On 11 minutes, Aaron Morgan-Cummings created a half chance for Antonio German, only for the striker's effort to be scrambled clear.

Danny Davenport was next to test Ross Faulds in the home goal, but his strike from outside the box was easily saved.

German then went even closer, only to see his glancing header from a Chris Arthur corner cleared off the line.

Matt O'Brien's long range effort was then deflected for a corner, before Rangers thought they had opened the scoring on 25 minutes when German smashed the ball into the Hatters net from 20-yards. The R's celebrations were cut short however, by the Assistant Referee's flag, who waved Josh Parker offside as, in his efforts to clear the penalty area, he obstructed Faulds' line of sight, thus deeming him interfering with play.

R's custodian Reece Crowther was a virtual spectator in the first half, but his wind-assisted kicking was proving a valuable alternative attacking ploy for Brown's side.

In the 28th minute, his enormous clearance bounced in the opposition area and Morgan-Cummings, jumping with Faulds, was unlucky to see his brave header bounce just the wrong side of the post.

Despite winning a succession of late corners, Rangers were unable to break through and half-time arrived with neither side having managed to break the deadlock.

Undeterred, Rangers started the second period in just as positive a fashion; Davenport's early strike sailed over the bar, before Josh Ford saw his close range header tipped over.

The breakthrough finally arrived just after the hour; Morgan-Cummings burst into the Hatters box and his fierce low cross was deflected into the net by a Luton defender.

Substitutes Danny Fernandez (for Parker) and Terry Smith (for Davenport) were introduced to add fresh legs to the Rangers cause and the former could have extended Rangers' lead within minutes of coming on, but his stinging volley was well saved at the second attempt by the home custodian.

Fernandez had another half chance late on, when an inch-perfect pass from Terry Smith set him free in the box, but the striker snatched at his shot and consequently failed to trouble the home keeper.

Luton's brave efforts to grab anything from the game weren't helped by their being forced to play the last quarter of an hour with ten men, and the final ten minutes with just nine, as they suffered two unfortunate injuries to players when they had already used their quota of substitutes.

"Sometimes you have to win ugly," said Brown.

"The conditions were very difficult and by the standards we have set for ourselves so far this season we came no-where near.

"This was by far our worst performance of the season and just because the going got tough out there, that's not an excuse to change our principles.

"Luton have given us a real battle every time we have played them this year and this was potentially our most difficult fixture left this season. They were extremely determined and I just felt we needed to score first, because if they had taken the lead I think we would have found it very difficult to get back in the game."