Jones hopes Hatters have learnt first half lessons from Solihull win

Hatters boss Nathan Jones hopes his side have learned their lessons from their last outing at Kenilworth Road when they entertain Carlisle United this afternoon.
Hatters boss Nathan JonesHatters boss Nathan Jones
Hatters boss Nathan Jones

Although Luton eventually breezed through to the third round of the FA Cup with a 6-2 triumph against Solihull Moors, they had found themselves trailing 2-0 at the break.

A second half blitz saw the Hatters prove too hot to handle, but Jones knows they can ill afford another opening 45 minutes like that against an impressive Cumbrians outfit.

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He said: “What we have to do is make sure we learn from the lesson, and they will, because they’re a good group.

“We haven’t played badly for a full 90 minutes for a long time, if I’m honest, we put it right, we’ve just got to make sure that we’re the ones not allowing others to affect our game.

“When we tweaked it and got back to being us, Solihull couldn’t live with us and it could have been a lot more.

“If we do that for 90 minutes, we’re some side. Sometimes it’s difficult, but we have to our foundations have to be better, our work-rate, our basics have to be better.

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“So even when we won’t playing as fluently as we like, we don’t concede.

“We’ve got to make sure we impose ourselves on the game while making sure we don’t leave ourselves open for their threat, because we believe we’re a good side but we have to prove that.”

Jones had labelled his side as ‘imposters’ in his post match press conference, but admitted that on reflection, it was a slightly unfair criticism.

He added: “That was a bit harsh saying imposters, I just felt they weren’t the same kind of group they were second half.

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“We started the game really, really well, and it was just a bit symptomatic of the Swindon game and the Portsmouth game.

“We started like a house on fire, and we did exactly the same against Solihull, but they scored with their first opportunity, and that’s what we can’t allow to happen.

“Imposters was harsh by me, in the heat of the moment after the game.”