Graeme Jones has said it was ‘big’ of his Luton players to take responsibility for Saturday’s 7-0 embarrassment at Brentford, but has admitted he must shoulder the blame with them.
In his post-match press conference at Griffin Park, the manager revealed how the players had asked him to tell that to the assembled media that they took the blame for the battering.
Captain Sonny Bradley then fronted up immediately afterwards and confirmed this, saying that he and his fellow Hatters were to blame for the worst performance he’s been part of, apologising to fans in the process.
Reflecting on the club’s heaviest league defeat since 1966, Jones today said: “Firstly, it’s not just the players. I have to accept responsibility as well. I think it’s big of the players and it tells you that there’s not a blame culture here.
“I think, more than anything, it was my disappointment. I’d hoped that we were going to climb the league.
“I’d seen the performance against Leeds, which I was immensely proud of, the performance and result against Charlton, which I was immensely proud of, and then rolled out the same team and the same set of tactics against Brentford and got a performance that was unrecognisable.
“I’m baffled, when you’re dealing with an honest group of players. That was the biggest thing for me that I had to deal with – why? I feel, privately, I’ve explained to the boys the reasons why and I know we’ll get a reaction.”
Jones explained on Saturday his embarrassment was why he’d not applauded fans as he left the pitch and, asked today if he’s since taken onboard fans’ reaction to the capitulation, Jones added: “You have to listen because their disappointment at the half time whistle and at the final whistle was absolutely heralded, there’s no question about that.
“But then, obviously, I’ve got to avoid distractions, I’ve got to be single-minded in my approach. It’s part of being a manager. I need to lead the ship, I need to lead the reaction and that’s what I’ve tried to do this week.
“We got whacked on the chin at the weekend in every aspect and the one thing it showed me is that nobody is going to help us. We’ve got each other and we’ve got to help ourselves and that’s the big lesson I’ve taken from it.”
Jones admitted that this week has been one of “soul-searching, meetings, disappointment, wanting never to revisit that again.
“Nobody is going to pick me up. There’s only one person that can pick me up and that’s me. You realise that and I’ve gone up a gear from a competitive point of view.
“I don’t want that to happen on my watch again. I did’t want it to happen at all on my watch, but it did and it shocks you and you have to react. I’ve been pleased with the reaction this week.”
Still no apology for not acknowledging us at the end of the Brentford game. I’m sure the players were embarrassed too but they came to us and apologised. Jones has to put what he did to bed with an apology.
He did apologise in his post-match press conference immediately afterwards: https://thelutonian.com/i-need-to-apologise-to-hatters-fans-says-embarrassed-jones-after-brentford-shocker/
No he didn’t. He apologised for the performance. Not for failing to acknowledge us. All he said of that was he was embarrassed, like explaining it means he shouldn’t have to apologise. He still hasn’t apologised for failing to acknowledge the 1600 of us that went. He needs to