Luton suffered their heaviest ever defeat to Birmingham as for the second week in a row they conceded three goals.
It’s a shame it didn’t end there as the Blues bagged a fourth and a soft fifth inside the last ten minutes.
But, the game had long been over a the time before Gary Gardner slammed a fourth into the top corner on 84 minutes.
Jones said: “I’m really disappointed, a little bit embarrassed by the scoreline and the level of performance but I don’t often get that from this group in terms of being embarrassed.
“I’m always proud of them, they give me everything, today we shot ourselves in the foot from early on.
“We conceded from a set-play which we did last weekend as well, it sets you back, ironically we started the game so well on Tuesday, we wanted to continue that, but we didn’t do the basics well enough today and that’s what caused us problems.
“As I said, I’m embarrassed a little bit by the scoreline, but we have to learn from that and go again
“It will be if we continue like that but we’ve got a lot of people out that we regard as our best header, we’ve got two six foot two, three, four, five foot centre halves out, Dan Potts who’s arguably our best headerer is out, so we’ve got a lot of people who do the basics well out.
“At the moment we’ve got people recovering, so we’re a bit makeshift at times, we’ve got Peter in the back three who’s a right back, and inexperienced, but we’ve had to do that, which is categorically different to them (Birmingham), with Harlee Dean with (Marc) Roberts and (Kristian) Pedersen that must have 900 Championship games between then, so we’re a little bit light in that way, we have to get everyone back, but we have to be better in doing the basics than that.”
As at The Hawthorns last weekend, Town conceded early as Elijah Adebayo gave Marc Roberts the freedom of Kenilworth Road to load up a bullet header from a corner was too hot to handle for Simon Sluga who couldn’t prevent it from slamming in off the bar.
But there was no wake-up call. Amari’i Bell failed to clear his lines with a weak header and Scott Hogan beat Peter Kioso – who was then withdrawn after just 27 minutes from Glen Rea – sending a clever looping header over the despairing dive of the Hatters keeper.
By then Manchester United loanee Tahith Chong was running the show for City in midfield and it was blessed relief that the hosts made it to the break only two down, though with a sobering statistic for their makeshift defence, which was that four of the five goals Luton had conceded in the Championship had come from headers.
They didn’t have to suffer any more of that, but it still got much much worse from the restart.
The only way the Hatters would’ve got back into this was to nab an early goal. Instead, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu miscontrolled on the halfway line and the impressive Chong showed him a clean pair of heels, looking odds on to make it 3-0.
Remarkably the home midfielder someone made up the difference to pull off a stunning recovery tackle, only for the loose ball to fall for Hogan, who tapped his second into an empty net.
It was a no-hope affair after that accentuated by two goals in four late minutes.
Gardner’s was unstoppable, though quite why he had so much space to execute his boomer is anyone’s guess, but it was Chuks Aneke’s fifth that typified the lack of fight and desire shown by the Hatters. Tom Lockyer – who’d seen a point blank header saved early in the game – scrambled with the forward on the goal-line but the Blues man wanted it more and stabbed in from point blank range.
Not much of a consolation, but freaky results like this are always possible – especially in the times we’re living in now. Remember Villa 7 Liverpool 2?
We’re relying on very much a makeshift defence at the moment, and it’s bound to make life more difficult. It doesn’t help either if a promising young player is effectively made a scapegoat – and replaced by a hard man who gets himself booked almost immediately.
As Jim says, at this level we need a degree of consistency in style and, as far as circumstances allow, selection. It doesn’t have to be predictable – we can still play with enterprise and flair.
Given their record so far, Sheff Utd should be beatable. But it could be a trying afternoon – unless we can turn things round and do a Brummie on them!
Can’t disagree with much of what Jim says, (including comment on old boy in DP Stand!). As Ghoshatter says, these lads need a leader who gives guidance and encouragement on the Pitch. The Comments on Naismith so true, and making him Captain? We do have some great new young talent, who at the moment are in danger of being led down a very dark tunnel. Kioso wan’t doing that badly, and to bring on Rea, who you could have taken bets on him picking up a yellow within 5 minutes as his only contribution. I’m not surprised at the performance though, I’ve seen their alleged preparation for the game on YouTube, 41 Mins doing the circles getting the ball, laughing and joking. Hard life lads!
Abject, shameful, disgusting. And that was just the sole old boy in the Preece Block D around row d/e(ish) who booed the Brum players taking the knee. He was with his lad and grandson. Proper scummy behaviour that.
As for the match. Terrible. Jones got every decision wrong but was let down by those he looked after. Poor Kioso, scapegoated this week the way Fred was last week. Except even worse. Kioso was the only defender trying to organise things. Naismith is back to looking like a man who has never played football. Lockyer looks unfit. And if you’re not fit, declare it and don’t start. He’s a long way from the cultured centre back he’s supposed to be. Bree yet again pulled out of challenges but was prepared to pull shirts. He needs something to go right for him soon or his career could stagnate.
There was zero midfield, and less attack. But…
Jones. Mr Jones. So in love with “matching up” that he’s forgotten that when you’ve got an almost entirely new team, maybe the best thing is to develop a style and stick with it. He chops and changes tactics at the moment like I change my pants. He’s wrong to do that. The players don’t know what they’re doing. Long ball crap against a big side is stupid.
Worst performance in this division since being back. Which makes this more than likely the worst performance since 2006. Not the end of the world. But needs to change. Please Nathan, stop giving so much of a shit about how the other team might play (especially at home). Get us playing fast and on the ground. And pick a formation and stick to it too. They’re not world class players and they don’t know each other. They need continuity.