Luton Town defender Mark McGuinness has called for improvement after the Hatters fell to a 3-2 defeat against Oxford United, extending their winless away run to 12 matches in all competitions.
Despite leading 2-1 at half-time, courtesy of a goal and an assist from the centre half, but the Hatters were undone by repeated defensive errors, with Grant Leigh’s winner seeing the United man head home without a single Hatter close to him in the penalty area.
Speaking after the match, McGuinness told the club’s website: “It’s a tough one for us, I think. I’m in a difficult spot in a minute. You know, guys like that, you’re not going to win games. We realised that it’s an area that we really need to go and work on, away from home especially. We know it’s not good enough.
“Unfortunately, at the moment where we’re putting a fairly good performance and not getting anything, no result from it. So, you know, we’re hurting, fans are hurting. People are travelling to come and watch us, and we’re not getting the results.
“But, look, we can’t do anything about it now. We’ve got to get training and get on to the next game, which is coming fast now on Saturday.”
Millwall are the visitors as Town aim to break the cycle of errors and get a first win under new manager Matt Bloomfield. The Lions were the last team Town beat on the road, back in September, but since then their struggles away from Kenilworth Road have been exacerbated by an inability to eliminate recurring mistakes.
“We’ve got to learn from the mistakes,” said McGuinness, adding: “If you’re not learning from mistakes, we’ll make the same mistakes again. I think it’s just about learning from them.
“We’ll look at it. We’ll go into the analysis room and we’ll look through things and, you know, we’ll get to the bottom of what’s happening. But it’s about getting back on the training ground and working with the new gaffer. Obviously, it’s the second game, so we’ve still got things he wants to work on and he’ll look at. So, look, we need to get in and get to work again.”
A switch in formation under the new manager offered brief glimpses of promise, with McGuinness at the heart of a four-man defence, having operating in a five for much of the season under former boss Rob Edards.
There were signs against Preston at the weekend, that he and Luton were adapting well to the set-up, but McGuinness acknowledged the need for sustained consistency.
“I enjoy it,” he said of playing in a back four. “I think the team flows well, plays nice in a back four. You can see that with some of the football we’ll play and we’ll get into nice positions, nice bits of play. But we’ve got to be consistent with that now. Again, that will come with time with the gaffer. But, you know, we need to pick up results in between that and building it.”
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