For 45 minutes against West Brom, Luton showed manager Graeme Jones that they are Championship quality – they just need to do it in both halves.
The Hatters had the Baggies on the ropes for spells in the opening 45 minutes, and were rewarded when Harry Cornick bagged his first goal of the season with an uncharacteristic booming header.
But the game turned in three minutes soon after the restart when Grady Diangana bagged a quick-fire brace that Luton failed to recover from.
Town travel to Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow in search of their first victory since promotion to the second tier, and Jones said: “There’s a sobering effect for everybody but if we can reproduce the first 45 minutes over 90, we’ll win football matches.
“The boys have showed me that they’re good enough, absolutely, at this level, but we need to sustain it.
“There wasn’t a player that I wasn’t happy with (in the first half). Everybody joined in, everybody was on the same page, everybody knew their tactical role and technical role before the game, and we carried it out.
“We really did carry it out in every single aspect, in every phase of the game, but we only carried it out for 45 minutes and you need to do that for 90 at this level.”
Cornick’s header was Luton’s eighth goal in four games this season, in all competition, all by eight different players.
Jones said: “At least we’re scoring goals, that’s the most important thing. I think any team that comes up, that’ll be the first area they look at.
“I’m not happy with conceding two goals. No goals from set-plays, so that organisation is working. It’s just, I feel like we gave them two goals with starting positions and that’s a disappointment.”
