Nathan Jones insists Luton are “realistic” about their goalscoring prowess compared to big budget rivals, but says his team can’t be content with accepting the quality difference and must strive to “push boundaries”.
Last night’s 2-0 home defeat to Cardiff saw the Hatters draw a blank for a 13th time in the Championship this term, wasting chances while the Welsh side took tougher opportunities, through Harry Wilson and Will Vaulks.
Danny Hylton, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu and Harry Cornick all fluffed their lines in front of goal, but James Collins wasted the most clear-cut chance, heading wide at the back post from point blank range.
“It’s a chance and, at this level, you have to take those,” Jones said of his top scorer’s 15th minute miss, adding: “It could be confidence. Whatever it is, at times he’s not having masses of chances like he was, coming up the leagues, so that’s the difficult thing.
“You’ve just got to take them when you can. We know that, when you look at the two teams, they’ve spent a hell of a lot of money on their squad and their team.
“We haven’t so it’s difficult. We’re not bemoaning it, but we have to be realistic because they (Cardiff) have spent a lot of money on their team.
“On their front ones, they buy people. Harry Wilson will be costing the equivalent of a third of our budget, so we have to be realistic.
“But, I want us to push boundaries, I want us to not be content with just (saying), ‘alright, they’ve got a bigger budget’.
“It’s not the be all and end all. If we did everything right then we get something from the game, but we didn’t and that’s the learning curve.”
Town had been the better side until Liverpool loanee Wilson bent one inside the post from distance and Vaulks doubled the Bluebirds’ advantage four minutes later.
Boss Jones said: “That’s the difference. Harry Wilson puts it in the bottom corner. Vaulks controls his shot and it’s straight through.
“We don’t quite do that but we have to show more quality if we want to win games, because that’s the level we’re competing at.
“So, if we want to beat teams like this, we have to show that quality. Away from home, I thought we were excellent in loads of our play, but horrific in others.
“I’ve watched Coventry play them at the weekend. Coventry were brilliant between both boxes, but in both boxes they were pretty similar to us.
“Cardiff, in the boxes are very good at the minute. In between, I don’t think it really worries them.
“But in both boxes, they’re very good and that’s the difference at this level.”
Only Derby and the bottom three teams – Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham and Wycombe – have scored less than Luton’s 23 goals in the Championship this term,
Asked what he can do to help make Town more ruthless in front of goal, Jones said: “We keep working and working and working on positions and stuff, and if we get chances we have to take chances.
“Quality is the difference. If you see some of Keiffer Moore’s goals, for example, they’re not clear-cut chances, but he’ll run down a line, cut inside and ping one and it’s a bit of brilliance.
“We need a bit of that at times but, without being too disrespectful to any of my players, this is the level that we’re at.
“So, we’ve got to be careful because we’ve got a great group that works hard, that’s right at it. To be fair, we’re at our limit and we know that, so sometimes you’ve got to take one on the chin.
“We’ve got to go again because we’ve got three more games in this month that we need to take points from and we’ll be ready for that.”
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