Nathan Jones admitted the 29 days since Luton’s last match affected his side’s sharpness even though they still put four past League Two Harrogate Town to book a place in the FA Cup fourth round.
Elijah Adebayo scored a sublime 11th goal of the campaign – firing low on the turn outside the penalty area after some route one play via keeper James Shea to Cameron Jerome – to put the Hatters ahead in the first half, very much against the run of play and the Yorkshire minnows did everything but score.
Ryan Fallowfield and Huddersfield loanee Brahima Diarra had the hosts chasing shadows as the Sulphurites cracked in cross after cross, yet didn’t really fashion a clear-cut chance.
But after the break, Cameron Jerome got on the scoresheet as Town gave the visitors a lesson in clinical finishing.
The striker’s second of the campaign came after Carlos Mendes-Gomes put it on a plate. The same could be said of Luton’s fourth when Fred Onyedinma cut back from the byline to Luke Berry, who buried it, in off the bar. That was his first taste of action since getting injured against Hull in October.
But between those goals was a moment of balletic beauty as defender Kal Naismith dinked a cool finish over keeper Mark Oxley, showing that there’s seemingly nothing the Scot, nicknamed Kaldini, can’t do.
“We haven’t played any competitive football in a month,” said Hatters boss Nathan Jones, adding: “We’ve got a lot of players who haven’t played in a long time and it showed today. We’ve been a mile off our levels, in intensity, energy, quality, work-rate, defensive prowess and we’ve managed to win the game 4-0, so it’s not bad work, is it?”
The Christmas Covid chaos saw Luton miss four festive fixtures, so this was their first game since December 11, with the next against Championship leaders Bournemouth.
“With the greatest of respect, if we were playing Bournemouth today we’d have got punished, it was that type of game,” said Jones.
“That’s the world we live in. We didn’t choose to have Covid. We didn’t choose to have these games called off. Two of the games were called off and not our doing, so it’s just the way it is.
“We knew this would be our first game back and we’d have to get them prepped. It was a stern test and we treated it right. We made the changes we needed to and a lot of people had minutes, and that was what it was about today.
“Yeah, we’ve got into the next round, but credit to Harrogate, they’re a good side, they’ve done really well and Simon’s (Weaver) done a great job there.
“We won the game 4-0, so let’s not forget that, even though we were nowhere near our levels and it could’ve been a different story, it wasn’t.”
And as he said in the pre-match build-up to this FA Cup clash, Jones reiterated that he hoped for a mouthwatering draw in the fourth round, following last year’s forays in the cup competitions when matches against Manchester United and Chelsea felt flat due to the coronavirus shutout of fans.
“We’d like a big draw,” said Jones, adding: “The FA Cup, with the greatest of respect, I’m not sure we’re going to win it. That’s not being pessimistic, because there are some big sides in it. So, we’d like an adventure.
“Today was a real romantic tie because we’ve not played Harrogate.
“This time last year we were playing Chelsea in front of no fans. We’d already played Man U in front of no fans, so we’d like to give them something.”
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