Hatters boss holds 'no grudges or malice' towards QPR following celebrations after last season's victory at Kenilworth Road

Luton boss Nathan Jones doesn’t hold any ‘grudges or malice’ against QPR for the manner of their celebrations following the 2-1 win at Kenilworth Road last season.

Back in March, the Hatters had been leading the West London opponents 1-0 at the break through Cameron Jerome’s strike, before Rangers hit back in the second period, Andre Gray levelling from the penalty spot after a poor challenge by Kal Naismith.

The R’s then went on to win it, Rob Dickie heading home late on, as the visitors celebrated with gusto in front of their away end, as speaking afterwards, a bitterly disappointed Jones had said: “These have never got to play well to beat us, I don’t know what it is, because we have chance after chance against them away from home and we gift them the goals and then here exactly the same.

“They beat us all the time.”

It was Luton who went on to have the last laugh though as following that meeting, Rangers lost five successive matches, as seven defeats from their last 10 games put paid to any hopes of the play-offs, finishing way back in 11th, some nine points behind the Hatters.

With Saturday the first time the two sides have met since, Jones insisted he had no ill feelings going into the contest, pointing to his own post-match jubilance at times, saying: “Sometimes euphoria gets the better of you and I’m sure there was no malice meant in it.

“Some people don’t like Luton, some people don’t like me, some people say stuff about me, but I bear no grudges or malice or anything against that.

“We felt we were hard done by as the goal was offside, the referee apologised to me on a number of occasions afterwards, not directly after the game, but they got it wrong.

“It was a really tight game and it meant quite a lot.

"There was no malice, last year we finished above QPR, so it could have spurred us on in some ways as we didn’t lose many games after that.

“It’s nothing you look back and think ‘we owe them this, that or the other,’ it wasn’t, some days you do and people celebrate.

“I walked up the steps at Swansea, no malice meant against Russell (Martin) or Swansea, it was that we had plenty of travelling fans, I wanted to show them that I appreciated them and that was my motivation for doing it.

“Some people question me for that, there was no malice ever meant by it, so no, it’s fine.”

With the match kicking off at 12.30pm, then a win for Luton would put them up to sixth before the rest of the division start their matches.

Jones admitted he actually prefers the early beginning to his day too, adding: “I don’t mind the early kick-offs to be fair, I quite like them.

“For a manager, there is a hell of a lot of hanging around on a Saturday morning so it’s selfish really.

"It just gives me two and a half hours less hanging around, as pretty much your work is done by Saturday morning, you just you have to wait, sit in your office and prepare and it’s tough.

"I quite like them, I’d like it as a player for the same reason to be fair.

"You get up, you have your breakfast, you go to a game and you play.

"You don’t overthink anything and sometimes that is a good thing.

“It just eliminates all dead time really.”