Hatters boss brandishes Blackburn midfielder's pre-match comments as 'idiotic'

Town manager has his say after Rothwell declares Rovers should be beating Luton
Rhys Norrington-Davies saw this effort flash inches wide during Luton's 1-1 draw with BlackburnRhys Norrington-Davies saw this effort flash inches wide during Luton's 1-1 draw with Blackburn
Rhys Norrington-Davies saw this effort flash inches wide during Luton's 1-1 draw with Blackburn

Luton boss Nathan Jones labelled Blackburn midfielder Joe Rothwell’s pre-match comments that Rovers should ‘expect to beat’ a side like Luton as ‘idiotic’ after both teams played out a 1-1 draw this afternoon.

In the build up to the contest, Rothwell, speaking to iFollow Rovers stated: "No disrespect to Luton at all here, but they’re a team that we expect to beat," despite the visitors never having won at Kenilworth Road in the league during 19 previous attempts, and Town also doing the double over them last term.

It had looked like the former Manchester United youngster's quotes would come back to haunt him, Luke Berry putting Town 1-0 ahead on 69 minutes with his second goal of the campaign.

However, substitute Sam Gallagher rescued a point moments later, as when asked if he had taken note of Rothwell's words in the build-up, Jones said: “Yeah, we’ve seen that.

"There’s probably a lot with that mentality, it’s an idiotic comment.

“If he was my player there would’ve been a lot I would’ve done because you don’t give teams motivation like that.

“He might expect to beat us, but expecting and doing it is two different things.

“We’ve got a humble group here and back in the day he might’ve had a different treatment, but you can’t do that any more.

“If I’m honest, if people want to comment about us then good, because it just means they underestimate us.

"If we get underestimated then it’s a great advantage for us, but we’re in a good place.

“We don’t worry about anything anyone says about us.

"We know the work we’ve got, we know the atmosphere we’ve got, we know how we’re recruiting, we know the way we do our business and we’re a proud club.

"So anyone that wants to try and pierce that, come and try.”

Meanwhile, goalscorer Berry admitted the comments only boosted Town’s desire to claim all three points, adding: “It’s something that motivates us as a team and as a club.

"I feel that we deserve to be here, we’re in a good position in the league and it’s something that we thrive on really.

"We deserve to be in this league, we’re pushing up this league, so he can say what he wants.”