Fotheringham accuses 'naive' Terriers of letting Luton 'off the hook' in New Year's Day defeat

Huddersfield Town boss Mark Fotheringham accused his ‘naive’ side of letting Luton ‘off the hook’ during their 2-1 defeat to the Hatters on New Year’s Day.

With both teams having gone into the game on the back of two successive wins over the Christmas period, it was the Terriers who struck first on 25 minutes, taking the lead through Duane Holmes’ close range finish after Jack Rudoni’s effort fell into his path.

However, Luton hit back just before half time, Amari’i Bell slamming Alfie Doughty’s cross past Lee Nicholls, with goal-line technology confirming it had gone in before Michal Helik’s last-ditch attempt to block.

An even second period then saw Town sub Reece Burke fire home the winner with six minutes left, picking out the bottom corner from James Bree’s right-wing delivery as they completed a perfect nine-point haul.

A disappointed Fotheringham said: “There was nothing in the game whatsoever.

“It was simple basics, you need to block the crosses or make a tactical foul as a group.

“I question if they're too naive or if we're ruthless enough to win three in a row.

"It was a lack of concentration and with Hoggy (Jonathan Hogg) on the pitch we handle these situations really well, and some of our big experienced players should have stepped up at that point.

"We let Luton off the hook and they're going away with three points, which should be the story written about us, and we should have had a draw as a minimum, but we didn't manage the game over the line.

"It’s nowhere near the standards we expect.

“The goals were unacceptable and we could have handled the moments a hell of a lot better.

"It's not acceptable in any way. We'll have to look at each other and be very honest.

"We never defended them as a group and we've just ended it on a downer.

"If we're serious about getting out of it we need to be better in the bigger moments.

“To go ahead in the game, especially against an opposition like Luton, you’ve got to up your levels of concentration and the goal we lost just before half-time was unacceptable, especially in that period of the game – we’ve made that clear to the lads.

“There’s been a lot of positives over the last three games, but that was definitely a negative in the respect that we’ve conceded two goals and we should’ve done a lot better for both of them.”