Graeme Jones admitted that Millwall’s second half comeback victory against his Hatters is the story of Town’s travels from this term.
Sonny Bradley gave Luton a half time lead at the New Den, but the Lions scored three goals in 11 minutes to ensure a ninth straight away-day defeat.
The game plan had worked for the first half, where Jones men frustrated the hosts and then scored the opening goal for the first time on the road since beating Blackburn at the back end of September. But they were under constant pressure after the restart and finally started shipping goals in the 69th minute.
“It’s been the story of our away season, really since Blackburn, that we’ve found it difficult,” said the Luton boss.
“I could easily talk to you about the positives but I don’t think anybody wants to hear it. I think it was a resolute performances for 70 minutes. Lots of good, certainly better and a bit more resistance and resilience that we showed against Bristol City, so that would be a positive. But we couldn’t hold out and that’s where the disappointment is.
“It’s just where we are. We’re a little bit short and we need to get our best players fit. We need to get a couple of players in. We need to reenergise the club, reenergise the players, freshen it up and get ready to get a minimum of 20 points from the next 20 games.”
Tom Bradshaw levelled for Millwall but, in the build-up, the linesman flagged for a foul on Bradley, which referee Stephen Martin didn’t blow up for.
Jones said:“I’ve got a linesman’s flag going at 1-0 up. Now, the wrong thing from our players is they should’ve played to the whistle. I’ve got five players stop, a ball in the box, goal. It changes the game, the dynamics change.”
The crucial Lions goal came nine minutes later from a counter attack after Luton made the rarest of forays up the pitch.
Jones said: “The second goal I’ve got Matty Pearson dribbling up the pitch. I certainly never asked Matty to do that. And, on transition, Alan Sheehan is running back and he gets cramp. That is just the definition of where we are at the minute.
“We need to have a level head, we need to be sensible, we need to get our best players fit because there’s not team can win without their best players.
“Even Premier League players suffer if they haven’t got a like-for-like. And we need to get some reinforcements in. Then we’ll be competitive in one game a week.
“Hopefully, towards the end of the window, we can do a bit of business, that we can recruit another one or two, that makes us competitive in the three games a week, when they come back. But I think that’s just a measurement of where we are.”
