Jones: Hatters' failure to win after conceding first is not down to a lack of character

Joe Pigott tumbles in the box but no penalty was given on Saturday

After Matt Harrold opened the scoring for Crawley on Saturday, Hatters couldn’t fight back as they were beaten 1-0, a result that stretched their winless run after conceding first to an alarming 35 games.

Not since the Conference days have Luton turned a deficit around to triumph, that when beating Forest Green Rovers 4-1 at Kenilworth Road, after Jan Klukowski had put the visitors ahead.

Since then, Luton have conceded first on 35 occasions, only avoiding defeat on eight occasions, with a dismal 27 defeats.

Jones has already broken a number of unwanted records in his short time at Kenilworth, a first win in Luton’s history at Mansfield being one, while scoring, and then beating York another crossed off the list.

However, after Saturday’s reverse, it means in the four games Luton have gone behind during Jones’ reign, he has suffered three defeats and just one draw, while they have also gone seven matches with a first half home goal now too.

But the boss said: “That’s in the past, I think at times that shows a lack of character, but there’s no lack of character in this team.

“This team are full of character and how they do stuff, how they go about their job. It was a fantastic performance, a dominant performance.

“We’ve had enough situations and opportunities to win the game. We hit the first man on probably five crosses first half which we work on day in day out.

“We weren’t clinical in taking chances or being in the final third and really picking something out and that cost us.”

Despite the defeat, an eighth home reverse at Kenilworth Road for Town supporters to witness this term, the Hatters players were applauded off at full time for what had been a totally dominant display against the Red Devils.

On the reaction, Jones added: “We appreciate that as they’ve been outstanding for us. We’ve got great fans, a great crowd here and I want to give them a team they can be proud of and I think they can be proud of that performance.

“It’s just frustrating that we didn’t win the game as I thought we were excellent and how we dominated the football match, it’s just we couldn’t score.

“We appreciate that as the fans are so important to us home and away. We wanted to give them that and get in the top half of the table, so it’s just disappointing we couldn’t give them that.”