Rob Edwards admitted it was “three minutes of madness” that saw Luton continue their winless start to the season and left the manager singing the same old tune about poor defensive mistakes.
Ordinarily a defeat like this, after Town were so in control at 1-0 – thanks to a Jimmy Dunne own goal for the second time in as many visits to Kenilworth Road – might be deemed a smash-and-grab effort, but the Hatters can only have themselves to blame.
Not only should Elijah Adebayo have put the game to bed and made it 2-0 when Shandon Baptiste played hime one-on-won with keeper Paul Nardi, but they were punished when their backline failed to do the basics.
Despite his header leading to the opener, it won’t be the home debut that new recruit Mark McGuinness will remember fondly when he allowed a huge hoof upfield to bounce and then got bulled by Michael Frey, who also bustled past the covering Teden Mengi, after his inclusion as a substitute following a week of transfer speculation settled his future. The Rangers frontman then picked out Nicolas Madsen who made no mistake.
Edwards hooked off the former Cardiff centre half, but not before things got much worse very quickly when Frey was given the freedom of Kenilworth Road to power past Thomas Kaminski.
“It’s on me and it’s on us, there’s no doubt about it,” said Edwards, adding: “We put ourselves in a great position to win the game, 1-0 up, and I thought we were playing really well in the first half.
“I thought we were still in really good control up until their first goal. We should’ve gone 2-0 up really. We had a big, big chance, but that can happen.
“But the goals were really disappointing and I’ve been saying that obviously for too long. It’s on me. I’m not blaming anyone now. People can make mistakes. Human beings can make mistakes, but then there’s got to come a point where we’ve got to do all that better.
“We got the press on really well and forced them to go long. We’ve got to deal with the long ball. Even when we don’t we’ve still got the numbers and the coverage to make sure we deal with it. We didn’t.
“It’s too easy for them to score that first goal, which rocked us for a minute or two. I think we should’ve thrown the ball into Shandon for the second goal but then didn’t defend the cross.
“It was three minutes of madness that have ultimately cost us.”
It rocked a Luton side that just seem like they’ve forgotten how to win and, despite a raft of changes, did not look capable of a rescue mission until a late, desperate flurry. Nardi made a string of saves and then, right at the death, substitute Joe Taylor headed over from a few yards out when hero status beckoned.
The striker may have been expecting a loan away from Luton, while social media has been awash this month with a clamoured for him to stay fix Town’s shyness in front of goal. But his big moment didn’t live up to that billing and he lay face down on the goal line for extended amount of time, but the ground refuses to open up and swallow him, or fans’ frustrations.
Instead it was left to boss Edwards to lead a lap of apology and front up to fans, some of whom booed as the final whistle confirmed a terrible start to the season.
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