Dewsbury-Hall rues two 'lapses in judgement' as Luton are defeated by Rams

Town's on-loan midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall felt his side rued two ‘lapses in judgement’ as they were beaten 2-0 by Derby County on Good Friday.

On seven minutes, Luton’s defence switched off allowing Martyn Waghorn pull the ball back for Lee Gregory to open the scoring, before two minutes into the second period, Glen Rea felled Tom Lawrence inside the area, as Graeme Shinnie converted the penalty.

Speaking afterwards, Dewsbury-Hall said: “It is a tough afternoon, the start of both halves, two lapses of judgement have cost us.

“The first half was an early goal, I thought after that we created a lot of chances and probably deserved to go in at the break at least level.

“We said at half time we want to start quick, keep them on the back foot and it’s another lapse of judgement at the start of the second half which kills the game off.

“They defend deep, they sit in, it’s hard to break them down and we just couldn’t really get that flow in the second half and it’s disappointing.”

The timing of the goals particularly ruined Luton’s bid to fight back as following Gregory’s opener, it was Town who were the better side for large parts of the first period.

Striker Elijah Adebayo missed three opportunities, one a glaring one from Dewsbury-Hall’s pass which saw the forward fire against the legs of Scottish international keeper David Marshall from a few yards out.

Just shortly after the second half began though, it was 2-0, as Town then never seriously threatened an equaliser, with the Leicester City midfielder continuing: “First half we had two or three clear-cut chances where on another day we score, we’re going into half time in the lead.

“I just felt like in the second half it took the wind out of sails a bit that second goal.

"As we said at half time we wanted to put them under pressure and them getting the goal just changed the game a bit and it’s hard to get that momentum back when you’ve just gone another goal down.

"We need to go on the training pitch and keep working on ways to break teams down when they sit in and is there is times in games where we’re going to have to do that, so that’s what we’ll be working on in the final games of the season.”

Dewsbury-Hall was involved in a bizarre incident during the second period as with Luton attacking on the right, he was cynically brought down by Nathan Byrne when looking to break into the box, the full back then refusing to let the midfielder go, pinning him to the ground.

It ended with both players being booked for their troubles, as the midfielder said: “I’m just running to make a run into the box and he’s grabbed me and pulled me to the ground.

“I’ve thought ‘fair enough’, I tried to get up again and again and again and he’s just holding me, it must have gone on for 20 seconds.

"I’m trying to get up, trying to get up, you can imagine how annoying it is.

"We’re attacking and you’re trying to leave the lad and he’s just grabbing on to you, I’ve just tried to get away from him, I’ve not pushed him in the face like he’s said I have, it’s just a frustrating thing.

"It’s one of those things where he’s tried to do something to try and get one of our players either sent off or the referee on to their case, which is not right, but if that’s what they want to do then fair play.

“We knew they were closer to the bottom of the table than the top so wins were really important.

"It was to be expected that if they scored the goal they were going to try and preserve that, that’s what they did.