Hatters boss annoyed by 'cheap defending' during Town's dismal defeat at Deepdale

Luton boss disappointed with the manner of both Lilywhites' goals
Hatters boss Nathan JonesHatters boss Nathan Jones
Hatters boss Nathan Jones

Town boss Nathan Jones was frustrated by what he labelled as ‘cheap defending’ during his side’s 2-0 defeat at Preston North End yesterday.

With very little in the game during a scrappy opening 25 minutes, the Hatters then fell behind when Amari’i Bell failed to clear just outside his area, the ball fed wide to striker Emil Riis who hammered his cross-shot past Simon Sluga from an incredibly acute angle.

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The second arrived in the final moments of first half stoppage time, skipper Sonny Bradley diving in on Ali McCann to concede a needless penalty that Lilywhites top-scorer Riis squeezed past Sluga.

Although Luton had their moments after the break, Preston ran out comfortable winners to end the visitors' five game unbeaten run, as Jones, who has seen his side hit back from two goals down at Blackburn Rovers this season, while also earning a point at both Bristol City and Derby County when conceding first, said: “We can’t keep giving sides 2-0 and come back, we’ve got to do the basics.

"If we’d done the basics well first half, we come in, we’re not playing well, but we keep a clean sheet and that’s what we’ve got to do.

"There’s a ball bouncing on the edge of our box that we can control and hook, and they don’t score the first goal and then there's a throw-in in injury time.

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"They throw it back, we try to dive in and win the ball, then they play it down the side of us, instead of just staying on our feet and just blocking the shot, we dive in, it’s cheap defending and we haven’t done that, but we did it today.

"There was loads, so much that set the tone.

"We gave the ball away, we stretched the ball when we didn’t need to, we didn’t play into feet, we lost headers, we let the ball bounce, there was no aggression, and they were better than us all over.”