Artell felt Town's second goal was offside

After Danny Hylton had crashed in the opener just after the hour mark, Luke Berry then made it 2-0 almost instantly, from Andrew Shinnie’s cut back.

However, Artell felt that striker Elliot Lee, who was standing in front of keeper Dave Richards, had been in an offside position, despite TV footage showing Railwaymen defender Brad Walker appearing to play him on.

Artell said: “I think we have beat ourselves. If you make bad decisions you get punished.

“When you cannot defend in one v one situations it is going to be tough and then we made a bad decision in our own third and that gives us a mountain to climb.

“Saying that the goal it is offside. The decision has cost us and the officials have missed it.

“We lost our shape for 10 minutes and could have been punished on the counter because we kept giving the ball away but there was nothing in the game.

“I didn’t think we were really opened up too often against the team that are top of the league.”

Artell felt his side more than matched the Hatters for long periods, but conceded Luton showed just why they are at the summit, adding: “We defended set-pieces, corners and crosses a lot better and that is a positive because that has been our Achilles heel in recent weeks.

“It was an opportunity missed because that could have given us another shot in the arm against one of the top sides in this league. We made too many bad decisions on the football and when you do that you give the opposition a chance to score.

“We had our moments and we gave it a right go in the final 15 minutes or so and could have nicked another goal.

“I thought we could have nicked another. It was a good game but they are top of the league because they don’t make the same mistakes we do.

“That is why we are where we are and it has got to stop. It’s got to be better.”