Nathan Jones apologised to Luton fans but revealed his Hatters were “decimated” by illness as they were stuffed 4-0 in a derby day horror show at Watford.
It was confirmed before the first clash for 16 years in front of supporters, that Henri Lansbury was missing through a sickness bug, while Dan Potts, who has started every league game this season was on the bench.
Jones said afterwards that the defender and Luke Berry were too ill to play and spent the game in the changing room, despite being named as substitutes.
And though Sonny Bradley took Potts’ place, the manager said he’d also been struck down as well and it set the tone because in the third minute, the captain couldn’t keep Keinan Davis from opening the scoring.
And it only got worse from there. William Troost-Ekong tapped in from point blank range on the stroke of half time and, just before the hour mark, keeper Ethan Horvath passed straight to Joao Pedro, who punished him. And then on 79 minutes, Ismaila Sarr was gifted the ball too, with the same end result.
And, to make matters worse, Gabriel Osho, who replaced the poorly Bradley at the break and missed a sitter at 2-1, was shown a straight red card for a reckless late challenge on Ken Sema.
“Today we got decimated by an illness bug,” said Jones, adding: “We lost Henri Lansbury, Luke Berry, Dan Potts. Even though they were on the bench and actually named, they didn’t come out because we were decimated by it.
“Sonny Bradley was totally decimated by it, so it was right through the squad. Today, we looked lacklustre. We’ve given away goals that we never give away. In the first two minutes, we don’t mark in the box.
“But, again, there’s context to it. Then, we’ve given the ball away. It’s only happened three times since I’ve been here in six years. Once at Derby away and twice today.
“So, there was a lot of stuff that wasn’t us today. Congratulations to Watford, but there’s a lot of context to it.
“I’m really disappointed, really gutted. I apologise to fans for what they’ve had to go through today, but we’ve given them plenty. It’s not like we’re well in credit, so we can do that. It is the last place we wanted to come to and there’s a lot of context to that today.”
Town had been the form team coming into the contest, on the back of a seven-game unbeaten streak and two back-to-back victories that had pushed them into the play-off positions, ten places above their arch-rivals.
But it looked the other way around as the Hatters failed to get to grips with the game and the occasion.
Jones said: “We’ll get it out of our system. It’s a defeat and we have to move on from it. The goal difference, we don’t like and it’s what we didn’t want, but there’s real context to it.
“When you’re decimated by four (illnesses) on the morning of the game, you have to change your team and certain things that you do, and that’s not ideal.
“All right through, we didn’t know who we could put on the bench and who we couldn’t. We’ve got injuries anyway so we’ve had to leave a couple behind.
“We literally couldn’t fill a bench. We were two short from filling a bench. We had to name them, but they were actually on a bed in the changing room.”
The game was effectively killed off in the 57th minute when Horvath – who pulled off three key saves in the first half – passed straight to Pedro. Luton had started the second half well until then and Jones called the keeper’s mistake “unfathomable”, but he was rather more scathing about the last red card for Osho.
“I’ve yet to see it but we’ve asked for discipline because, at the end of the day, the game’s done and it’s given the referee a decision,” Jones told the BBC.
“It’s not just today, it’s three games and that’s what kills us. Being ill, Reece Burke being injured and he’s just come back from injury, so it’s completely stupid in what he’s done. I’m really disappointed.
“It’s a bad day, a really bad day, and sometimes people lose their head and he didn’t need to do that. It’s not just today, it’s a knock-on effect.
“I was getting frustrated. I was getting called absolutely everything, but I didn’t go and punch someone. I didn’t do something stupid that cost me in the future and our players can’t do that.
“They have a responsibility to the football club, not just to take the law into their own hands. He’s a young player that’s just come back from injury and is trying to find his way in the game, so it’s disappointing.”
The damage was done by then in terms of the scoreline, which is Luton’s heaviest defeat of the season at the only club they didn’t want to underperform against, such was the enthusiasm of the travelling Town fans leading up to the game.
Jones said: “I understand the importance of the game. Local rivals that haven’t played (in front of fans) for 16 years. I understand, so congratulations to Watford.
“They scored goals today but there was a lot of context to it. We’ve put in big shifts in the last four games.
“We’ve been three away, West Brom, Norwich, Watford here then QPR at home. We went unbeaten in three, got seven points. It’s a good haul. We can’t forget that.”
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