Nathan Jones says focus must quickly shift from Luton’s 7-0 drubbing at Fulham to Saturday’s final day of the season play-off showdown against Reading.
It was the manager’s biggest defeat as Hatters boss manager, which saw the Cottagers claim the Championship title, while Aleksander Mitrovic bagged a hat-trick to break the Championship goalscoring record of 43 individual strikes.
It saw Luton slip to sixth in the table, but still leaves their play-off fate in their own hands and if Town beat Reading at Kenilworth Road at the weekend they will extend their season.
There are permutations that could still see the Hatters seal their place in the end-of-season lottery if they draw or lose, but victory will avoid the arithmetic, especially after Fulham’s romp destroyed their goal difference buffer over Middlesbrough and Millwall below them in the division.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Jones said: “It’s exciting, it comes down (to one game). We would’ve taken that, in terms of being in the mix. Today’s a really tough one to take. Everything about it didn’t go right, but that’s football.
“We can’t dwell on it. It’s unfortunate. We’ve moved the game. We’ve moved it because you (Sky) wanted this type of game and they’re champions. It’s unfortunate for us because we’ve got less time to prepare, but that’s fine.
“It’s four days now, and we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for our biggest game for a hell of a long time.”
Jones will now have to revive his injury-ravaged men, as they suffered yet two more pull outs. First live-wire midfielder Allan Campbell pulled up in the warm-up and then Fred Onyedinma limped off after injuring himself immediately before Tom Cairney’s opener for Fulham – their 100th goal of a stellar title-clinching campaign.
Jones said: “We’ve come up against a really good side, the best side in the league, congratulations to them, they’ve won the league.
“Look, we’re an aggressive side, we want to play a certain way, but I’ve got nine first-team players out. Pace, power and my front two were missing today, they couldn’t play. Harry Cornick was on the bench and I couldn’t bring him on.
“Missing Elijah Adebayo, missing five midfield players, both wing backs, so it’s tough, coming here.
“That’s the equivalent of them (Fulham) having nine players out and Mitrovic and then going to Man City, because that’s the difference in what it is.
“It’s a tough day for us today. It’s not going to come down to goal difference, I’m sure, so we’ve got one game to make sure we win it and we would’ve taken that at the beginning of the season.
“We’ve got to dust ourselves down, make sure we’re ready for a home game and we’ve got to win one home game and that’s basically what we have to do.”
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Spot on, NJ. A fairly predictable outcome in the circumstances, but in the end it’s Saturday’s game which will really count. Let’s hope the squad will be strong enough to see us through to the play-offs – which will be an achievement in itself. Whether or no, it’s been a great season, and NJ and the squad deserve every credit. Proud to be a Hatter!
hopefully the starting line up was more about protecting some for saturday so we have a stronger team with pace for what is a very winnable game. might be a bit deluded to think that though!
what we should dwell on from yesterday, is how to convince the Met police to stop indiscriminately treating all Luton fans like scum every time we set foot in west London. i saw a 9 year old with his dad, and another young one with her mum distraught at having been pepper sprayed at half time. they also saw the batons come out. that could put them off going to matches for a very long time.
i won’t condone the beer throwing wallies on either side. They should apologise to the families caught up in it. but the Met need to hold their hands up and admit their policing was wrong. yet again. won’t happen though cos the Met don’t see their job being to serve people other than themselves.