James Collins believes Luton need to learn not to be so naïve after throwing away a point against Birmingham City in a 2-1 defeat.
The striker scored from the penalty spot – his ninth of the campaign – to get Town back in their last Championship contest after conceding a Lukas Jutkiewicz header in the fourth minute of a dire first half.
But Town were only on terms for seven minutes before Gary Gardner consigned them to their six league defeat in seven games.
It means that the Hatters are now four points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Championship, with the worst goal difference in the division, and just 19 games to perform an unlikely act of escapology.
Town travel to Nottingham Forest for a lunchtime kick-off on Sunday and Collins said: “We’ve got to learn that when we get back in the game, maybe not be so naive.
“Maybe stick in there and we’ll be the ones to go on and get the winner, because I’d rather be coming in here (post-match press conference) with a point than with no points.
“We’ve got to give credit to the league we’re in. We’re playing against better players who have got more know-how in the league than us, but we need to learn quickly because time is going to run out. We need to make sure we get some points on the board.”
The Hatters have now nine 11 Championship games by the odd goal and Collins said: “I don’t know if it’s down to confidence, it’s down to being unlucky at times, maybe not being clinical enough when chances have come our way.
“But we can’t keep going one or two goals down and expecting to come back and win.
“We need to be more resilient as a team, and try and get that first goal.
“As you’ve seen in previous games, Bristol City and games like that, when we have scored first, we’ve gone on to win.”
Eight times Town have conceded the opening goal inside the first ten minutes, and manager Graeme Jones said: “It’s a mental aspect that I’ve been speaking about since minute one.
“We try every single way of making the players technically, tactically, physically, mentally ready for the game.
“(Birmingham) was the first time I’ve seen us really, really low on confidence for the first half an hour.
“We managed to dig in at half time, managed to get a spark on the pitch with George (Moncur) and Dan Potts and hopefully next week we’ll have Izzy Brown fit, we’ll have Martin (Cranie) fit.
“Hopefully we’ll get some new additions and you get some new energy, and get some new belief and that’s where we are.”
