Adebayo felt he let his Luton team-mates down after missing glorious chance against Tottenham

Luton striker Elijah Adebayo felt he let his Hatters team-mates down during Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at Kenilworth Road.

The 25-year-old had been recalled to the starting line-up for the contest, live on TNT Sports, against a Spurs side who knew a win would take them to the top of the table.

Ange Postecoglou’s team had by far the better of the first half, but couldn’t take their chances, and when Yves Bissouma was sent off in stoppage time, shown a second yellow for diving, the belief amongst Town’s players and supporters began to grow.

Moments after the break it looked like they were going to capitalise on that new-found optimism, Chiedozie Ogbene getting away on the right and crossing for an unmarked Adebayo at the back post.

With the goal gaping and the forward looking odds-on to notch a second in as many games, he opted to go with his right foot, rather than his left, as the ball somehow got stuck underneath him and eventually rolled behind without even testing keeper Guglielmo Vicario.

It was made even worse with Micky van de Ven scoring soon afterwards with what turned out to be the winner, on target after Town were caught napping from a short corner routine.

While some players would have ducked an interview request afterwards, Adebayo impressively decided to front up to the press, going on to say: “After the first 10 minutes we got to grips with the gameplan that we put in place.

"Tottenham are a good team, we know we have to be perfect in a sense, because they've got some really good players, but after the sending off, it was quite late on in the first half, so in the second half we had another gameplan, a different gameplan.

"Myself, if I score, I think it’s a completely different game and those are the fine margins of this league

“I think if I go (with my) left foot I score.

"I’ve just gone with the wrong foot and it’s gone underneath me, but strikers miss and they have to try to bounce back and that’s what I’ve got to do.

"I’ve got to bounce back and not let it affect me too much.

“Obviously, I let the boys down today, but I’ll be working hard in the week again to try to rectify that.”

Manager Rob Edwards was quick to back his striker afterwards, saying: “I’ll look back at it and it was a big opportunity for him, but it’s us, it’s a team, it’s us together who create them and us who miss them.

"There’s a lot of us who have been guilty of missing some chances, there were others out there today who could have done slightly better in front of goal, but that was a big moment.”

It was the same for midfielder Marvelous Nakamba as well, who said: “We spoke with him in the dressing room, he is frustrated, but we are there to support each other.

"It is part of football, so we have to be there for each and everyone, win as a team and lose as a team, it’s part of football.

"Now we have to keep on believing and train hard in training, so we can rectify those things for next time.”

It wasn’t just Adebayo who was off target for the Hatters during what was a promising second half display, as Alfie Doughty volleyed wide, while Jacob Brown put a free header over the top, Cauley Woodrow coming off the bench to shoot straight at Spurs stopper Vicario as well.

It means that from 102 shots this season, the 12th highest in the division, Town have managed just 18 on target, the lowest out of all 20 top flight sides, as on what is needed to improve that ratio, Adebayo continued: “It’s just a case of taking care and today I just didn’t take care with the basic thing of using the correct foot.

"It’s more taking care in front of goal, if there’s an easier option on, give it to them for a tap in, but we’re doing a lot of stuff on different finishes in different areas of the box and one time finishes.

"It comes down to just basics and taking care in front of goal and hitting the target, if you hit the target you give yourself the best possible chance.

“They’re down to ten men but they take their chance and it makes the game a little bit easier for them because they can sit in their shape.

"We’re learning every game, we know where we’ve got to improve, that deadly instinct in the opposition box and I’m sure it will come over the next few weeks.

"Now we’ve got some time to reflect and get ourselves together for Nottingham Forest.”

One positive that the forward did take was the amount of opportunities Luton did engineer during that second 45 minutes, adding: “Tottenham are a Champions League team, to be creating the chances that we have against Tottenham is always a plus.

"When you are creating those chances, you need to take one of them because this league’s ruthless.

"They’ll get one chance, to be fair they had a few chances themselves in the first half, they didn't take theirs, but its a numbers game, you’ve got to take one of yours or they’re going to end up taking one of theirs.

"It was tough today, the boys are a bit down, but we’ve got to pick ourselves up.

"We’ve got great character in the dressing room, the senior boys have spoken up so we know what we’ve got to do moving forward.”