Graeme Jones admits the step up from League One has been harder for Town’s title winners and despite a tough set of fixtures to kick-off their Championship campaign, believes it could prove beneficial further down the line.
The manager signed nine new players during the summer and re-signed Kazenga LuaLua and, barring Croatian import Simon Sluga, all have experience of the Championship and higher, in a bid to help the Hatters cope in a division they’ve not played in for 12 years.
Jones has spent the majority of his coaching career in the top two divisions in England, as well as a spell as number two to Roberto Martinez with the Belgium national team in the 2018 World Cup.
Town is his first managerial role and when asked if he’d found the start to the season harder than he’d imagined, he said: “Not for me. It’s been harder for the boys, in terms of the step up, but we’ve had very, very difficult fixtures if you want an excuse.
“The fixture list could’ve been kinder to us, to help us settle in but we don’t choose the fixtures. We have to react to it. Like the Norwich game in pre-season, for example, it was really, really difficult. It helped us against Middlesbrough, so sometimes the tougher the game, the easier it is when you have other opponents when they come along.
“You get a question from Middlesbrough, Cardiff, West Bromwich Albion, coming to Hillsborough, I think we’ve grown and that’s the key. Measure that improvement and that’s where we are.”
As they had against West Brom at the weekend, Luton dominated the first half against Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night but still came away with nothing after a defensive lapse in the 54th minute allowed Kadeem Harris to score the only goal of the game.
Jones said: “If you compare it to Saturday, we were nowhere near the level. Sheffield Wednesday are a really strong, off-the-ball outfit and we didn’t want to play into their hands. Saturday against West Brom was our most complete 45 minutes.
“We had total control of the game, playing in a way that will take us further along, long term, than the way we played in the first half (against Wednesday).
“But it is horses for courses at times and we’re learning to be adaptable. Between the staff and the players we’re going through a lot at the minute, but we’re together. I like where we are, we’ve just got to turn those performances into wins.”
But, apart one phase of play at Hillsborough, Jones was pleased with Luton’s showing in Sheffield, despite admitting his side need to start winning.
“I want to win football matches for this football club,” he said, adding: “Within any kind of performance you have to look at what actually happened and the performance breakdown was one mistake. That’s where the performance broke down.
“Outside of that, was excellent, was totally acceptable for a League One club coming to Sheffield Wednesday who, not so long ago, were in two play-off semis and finals, and compete the way we competed. But we need to make that next step and we’re getting closer to it.”
