Graeme Jones admitted Luton’s disastrous start in a 3-2 defeat at Queens Park Rangers was naive and the most disappointed he’d been since becoming manager.
The Hatters were 3-0 down by the 28th minute through an early Ebere Eze blast and a brace from Nakhi Wells and it could have been worse as the former hit the bar twice.
Town looked shellshocked as Rangers swarmed all over them, with the only surprise that they didn’t score any more.
But then a blooper from Rs keeper Tom Lumley allowed Harry Cornick to fire into an empty net from 35 yards and he then teed up James Collins early in the second half for a goal on his 100th appearance for the club.
It saw Luton take the game to the West Londoners, but they couldn’t force an equaliser and that left the manager scratching his head at his team’s start.
Jones said: “I thought we were very naive with our start, their tempo in the one v one duels was stronger than ours and it’s the first time I’ve felt disappointed with the group.
“Then we made a few changes, made a change after 30 minutes at 3-0, we have to take the positives because I think any other group would have crumbled at that point.
“I don’t know what it was, maybe the third goal went in on 25 miunutes, we get back to 3-0, made a few tactical changes, made a few personnel changes and took a few risks at the end and could quite easily have taken something from the game.
“It was a mountain to climb at 3-0 down, but sometimes you win and sometimes you learn and today I’m afraid it’s time to learn.”
Jones admitted he’d have to study the footage to find the reasons for Town’s woeful start.
He said: “I’ll have to look at the data, that will give me a better explanation, but it was out of character as the character of the boys is not that.
“I just thought we started a little bit sluggish, a little bit naive.
“I thought Queens Park Rangers are a very good side, I said that pre-match.,
“I think they proved that for 30 minues, but again you show people no respect, as we did for the last 60 minutes and you can see what we can achieve.
“We won the second half 1-0, so it’s a learning curve.”
