Hatters boss critical of his side’s marking

Luton’s back-line has already shipped 19 goals this term, as opposed to the Pilgrims’ 10, while the table-toppers have enjoyed a far superior six shut outs as well.

On his issues defensively, Still said: “At the moment, I just feel that our marking in the box isn’t correct. Sometimes the areas are correct but you’ve got to mark first.

“This might sound silly, but it’s one step that can make a difference.

“The fella scored the goal the other day (against Leyton Orient), where he just stretches his foot out. If one of our players had been a step that way he could not have done it, would not have been possible and the area you have to protect, you have to protect the obvious.

“Sometimes you have to say ‘good goal’, but if it’s across the six yard box as they did against Crawley for the first goal and against Orient, it’s too obvious.

“We haven’t protected those areas well enough and it has been a concern there’s no doubt about it.

“It hasn’t happened too often, but it doesn’t have to as they scored a goal from it and that was what was disappointing.”

The similarities in the goals Luton have let in recently was also a bugbear for the boss as he added: “We conceded against Crawley on Saturday and we conceded a goal the other night that although are not obviously similar, are so similar it’s untrue.

“I’ve gone through it with defenders on the DVD and we’ve done some work on it as it’s so obviously similar to a player about how the goals develop, and the areas that you should be defending.

“Having conceded more goals this season than we would normally do is a concern, I have to say it is a concern. We have to overcome that, we have to be able to win some games 1-0.

“From day one, we work defensively here. If you ask any of the players, it’s more than at any of the clubs they’ve been at.

“It’s not like a glaring thing, it can be an obvious thing, earlier in the season it was a deflection, (Mark) Tyler dropped a ball, that type of thing.

“But all teams have good times and bad times but it’s consident times, that’s what we need to get.

“I hope that when we’re not at our best we have that in us where we can still grind results out.

“That’s why the Crawley defeat was disappointing, knowing that when we do play well, we are capable of scoring goals.”