Luton 3 QPR 1: Jones admits Dunne ‘conga’ last term did motivate Hatters to end hoodoo

Luton boss Nathan Jones admitted that QPR’s victory celebrations last season were used as motivation in a hoodoo ending 3-1 win over Rangers.

Before the Championship game, the Hatters boss played down the reaction of the Rs players, particularly Jimmy Dunne who celebrated in front of the home supporters and refused to shake the hand of goalkeeper James Shea. 

But goals from Elijah Adebayo, and Luke Freeman were sandwiched between an own goal for Dunne and if revenge is a dish best served cold then the karma of the defender’s name on the scoresheet for Town was a piping hot side platter.

Recalling the scenes after the final whistle in May, Jones said: “Jimmy Dunne was doing the conga down the left-hand touchline and (Stefan) Johansen was whooping like he was on Wheel of Fortune. 

“But I’ve been guilty of that. I’ve jumped into crowds, as I’ve said, so we hold no malice in that to call them out.

“But that’s what happened on the day, so it galvanised us a little bit. After that we didn’t lose many more games.”

In fact, though Rangers leapfrogged Luton back in spring, it was the Hatters that went on to finish last term in the play-offs and here, albeit for a few hours because of the early kick-off, Town were back in the top six. 

And the manner in which they did it, came courtesy of a first Championship win in nine against the west Londoners, where they finally got what the deserved.

That was a dismal run that stretched back to 2006, and even that was their only victory in 22 clashes, so the triumph was a long time in coming, especially after recent run-ins.  

Jones said: “They beat us here when Charlie Austin made his debut and it was probably the right result. Apart from that, we could’ve beaten them on any one of the three occasions. 

“We let QPR off the hook in recent years. Yeah, they over-celebrated and stuff, here. We used that. I said in the press that we didn’t, but of course we did, because we don’t want that on our patch in our back garden. We were excellent today, from start to finish. 

“Today was just about us winning a game for Luton Town and being the best version of us that we can be. We were today and I’m proud of the performance.”

Almost everything went right for the Hatters as the Carlton Morris and Adebayo partnership continued to flourish with the latter bagging his third in three – all of them set up by his partner – as he nodded in on the line. 

And the striker should’ve had a second but a stunning header crashed off the inside of the post and still somehow didn’t go in. 

After the break Rangers rallied but Jones made a triple sub on 67 minutes and all three players were involved in the next two goals. 

First Cameron Jerome’s pressing led to Dunne’s own goal, though the striker afterwards insisted it came off his knee, which accounted for why the forward celebrated by watching the ball cross the line.

That came after QPR had hit the crossbar and they did manage to pull back a late goal through an unfortunate Ethan Horvath own goal just when the keeper looked on for a well-deserved sixth clean sheet of the campaign. That was a third own goal in two games for Luton, but this time it was nothing but a side note.

Any nervousness of QPR’s traditional party-pooping was put to bed when, in time added on, Harry Cornick laid it on a plate for Luke Freeman.