Graeme Jones says goalkeeper Simon Sluga is still adapting to the tempo of the Championship but that the killer goal at Sheffield Wednesday was not the fault of Luton’s record signing.
The Croatian put in a commanding performance during the first half at Hillsborough with a flying save to deny Kadeem Harris, while dealing confidently with crosses.
But ten minutes into the second half Sluga tried to start a quick counter, throwing to Ryan Tunnicliffe who was pickpocketed by Jacob Murphy, leading to the only goal of the game.
However, it still involved James Bree being beaten by the winger, Matty Pearson losing out to Stephen Fletcher and Sonny Bradley not getting close of to Harris, who supplied the final touch.
Asked about Sluga’s involvement in the crucial moment, manager Jones said: “That comes a lot from training. I don’t mean with us. When we signed Simon he was a real counter-attacking goalkeeper, so they (Reijka) train every day to catch a ball and then quickly get to the edge of the box and look to play. It’s not always on and in the British game we’ve just been under the cosh a little bit.
“Matty heads the ball back and sometimes you need to read the tempo of the game and we’ve spoken about that a lot, but I’d rather take the positives of what Simon did because I thought he was excellent again.
“Ultimately, it wasn’t down to him. It’s a throw out, Ryan stands on the ball, I think. I thought I saw it on the big screen, but we’re getting punished for everything, but we’re getting closer as well. You’ve just got to keep believing.”
