Hatters boss has learned lessons from last year's cup defeat to Chelsea as he predicts a 'totally different' tie at Kenilworth Road

Luton boss Nathan Jones believes his side have learned plenty of lessons from their trip to Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup last season ahead of tomorrow night’s fifth round clash against Chelsea, a tie that he insists will be 'totally different.'

The Hatters travelled to west London last term for their clash in the previous stage of the competition, only to fall 2-0 down inside the opening 18 minutes, Tammy Abraham netting a double.

There was real controversy surrounding the first goal which came when there had been two balls on the pitch at one stage, with Jones scathing in his criticism of official David Coote afterwards, claiming the referee showed him a lack of 'respect'.

Prior to that, Jones’ men had been late on to the pitch for kick-off due to having to change across the road from the ground due to the coronavirus restrictions in place at the time.

Speaking about how the experiences will stand then in good stead for the tie on Wednesday night, Jones said, with tongue in cheek: “We learned lessons from last year, we learned you can play with two balls on the pitch so we might try that and learned that if your changing room is a mile away from the pitch then leave a bit earlier.

“We have learned lessons from last year but we gave a real good account of ourselves.

“We were high press against them last year, we came unstuck against them early on but then we were really in the game.

“They had phenomenal players they could call upon and plus it was away from home and we didn’t have any of our fans there.

“It’s a categorically different game to what we imagine it is going to be this week.

"We’re going to relish it but it’s a real opportunity to test ourselves, not just to enjoy it but we’re going to test ourselves.”

Although Jordan Clark got the Hatters back into the game, when his effort went straight though keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga on the half hour, the Spanish stopper hitting the headlines this week after missing the deciding penalty during Chelsea's Carabao Cup final shoot-out defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, the Hatters went on to give a good account of themselves.

Harry Cornick went close in the second period, denied by a fine Kepa save, before Abraham, now at Roma, finally killed the tie off late on, completing his hat-trick.

Simon Sluga also saved a late penalty to avoid conceding a fourth, as Jones knows that how Luton start the game will be crucial this time, as he continued: “It was a learning curve for us as we didn’t start particularly well, albeit, a lot of people didn’t start well on the day.

"But it can only breed confidence, the fact we were able to go toe-to-toe and not get embarrassed, so we’ll go toe-to-toe again.

"I’m not setting up our team to be ultra hard to beat, sit back and so on, we’re going to be us,

“Hopefully no-one else kicks a second ball on which could impact, that’s what set us back a little bit and then we got rocked a little bit by that.

"They scored again and by the time we realised that, we were a decent side and we came at them, so it will be a very different game from last year on a number of levels.

"We just have to be us, we have to make sure that we’re the best version of ourselves as if we’re not the best version of ourselves, then Chelsea haven’t got to the best version of themselves to win the game.

"But if we are the best version of ourselves then we will push Chelsea, now, how far, we don’t know, as if Chelsea are the best version of themselves, there’s not many teams who can beat them.

"So we’re going to have a tough night, but we’re going to enjoy it and the reason why we’re going to enjoy it is not because we’re going to be high fiving and walking around as we’re on TV, it’s because we’re going to test ourselves again.

"We like testing ourselves at this football club as we always have.

"We've been to Newcastle, played Leeds, Villa here, played some big sides, but we like testing ourselves and that’s what we’re going to do.”

One big factor that is different this time around, is that rather than being at an empty Stamford Bridge, the game will be played out in front of a red-hot Luton crowd at Kenilworth Road, who will be baying for a famous cup upset.

Jones knows the home fans need to crank the noise levels up, adding: "We’re going to have to (use the crowd).

"Player for player we’re not as good, as a team we have unity but in terms of everything, they are on a different planet to us at this moment in time.

"Finances, structure, size of the owner and everything, we’re going to have to use every little advantage we possibly can, but what we have to do is work.

"We believe in our work and a lot of things will have to come right, it’s a very difficult tie but a great one.

"Sometimes you come up against Premier League sides and it's the unknown as we don’t play in the Premier League.

"So it’s that romance, but that unknown and that fear factor that if you don’t do things right you can get hurt and we saw that.

"If you mess about with Premier League sides then they hurt you as they can, they have quality all over.

"But it's a different game as it’s at our place and the Kenny is far different from Stamford Bridge and a full Kenny is far different to an empty Stamford Bridge.”