Graeme Jones has told his Luton players that they’re reaching a critical point in their Championship campaign where they need to start taking points, after they threw away one at Birmingham City on Saturday.
Town had been second best until the hour mark when James Collins and then Harry Cornick were introduced off the bench, having been rested after losing to Fulham on Wednesday.
With virtually his first touch, Cornick scored a cracker to cancel out Kristian Pedersen’s opener on the stroke of half time. From there, the Hatters looked a much more threatening prospect.
But Lukas Jutkiewicz headed a controversial 82nd minute winner, with potential fouls on Matty Pearson and even Kazenga LuaLua in the build-up.
It left Town with just three points from their last three games, sitting in 19th place, just two points above the drop zone after 14 games. And the Town boss admitted that can’t carry on.
Jones said: “We’re just getting to the stage of the season when being positive about performances is not enough. I’ve said that to the players. We have to take points. We have to take positive results, especially when you’re in the ascendancy.
“That was the plan. That’s why James and Harry didn’t start the game. We wanted to get some momentum late in the game, if we could stay in it. We did. Then we gave a stupid set-piece goal away, which is arguably a foul and the 82nd minute of the game.
“On Wednesday night I can hear myself talking about recovery and sometimes those fine margins cost you.”
Jones had warned after the 3-2 defeat at Fulham in midweek, that 24 hours less to recover than Birmingham could prove problematic. And he made three changes to the team with top goalscorers Collins and Cornick moved to the bench.
“I believe in the lads, I really do. The characters are outstanding,” Jones said, adding: “The 18 boys in that dressing room, everybody contributed. You’ve seen the substitutes, when they came on, they were ready. Again, the lack of recovery costs your team selection.
“You’ve got to think differently because James, Harry and Jacob Butterfield, they weren’t built to play like that for 90 minutes, particularly James and Harry because there was so much taken out of them in the last two games.
“The plan was to be in the game and I said to them, ‘get us in the game so we can tactically make a substitution and it worked because we were in the ascendancy and I think there was only one team winning the game.
“I don’t know if it’s foul. They tell me he’s (Jutkiewiz) got hands all over his (Pearson) back and he can’t jump, but if we’re talking about Championship savvy, that’s what we’re talking about. The small detail there were you don’t get beaten.”
