Bradford boss rues missed opportunities during Luton defeat

The Bantams, who were second best for long periods in the game, went close through Nathaniel Knight-Percival, David Ball and Hope Akpan, although only sent one shot on target at James Shea's throughout the 90 minutes.

Bowyer, whose side remained four points adrift of safety, said: “We could have got something from the game but Luton are a very good team - and are top of the league for a reason.

“They are unbeaten in 24 games but we gave it a real good go. If you saw the way they reacted at the end of the game, it tells you what a big win it was for them.

“They realised we gave them a good game, especially in the second half.

“One disappointment I have is we didn’t trouble their goalkeeper enough.

“There were a few flashes across the goal and Hope Akpan had a good effort, which only just went narrowly over.

“Billy Clarke came on and nearly made an immediate impact, while David Ball felt he was brought down and should have had a penalty when through on goal.

“We tried to change the front two to give us something different, with the technical craft of Billy and the strength and speed of Omari (Patrick).

“When the momentum is going for you, and you are top of the league and winning, these situations go your way.

“But when you are in the position we are – just like Saturday’s decision against us – things are given against you.

“Unfortunately, it just didn’t quite work out for us against a very good Luton team.”