Hatters boss left 'embarrassed' by Luton's humbling home defeat by the Blues

Manager reaction after Town are thrashed 5-0
Hatters boss Nathan JonesHatters boss Nathan Jones
Hatters boss Nathan Jones

Luton boss Nathan Jones declared he was left ‘embarrassed’ by the manner of Town’s capitulation at the hands of Birmingham City this afternoon, as they were thrashed 5-0.

The Hatters had gone into the game looking to build on their fine 1-0 win at Barnsley in midweek, but fell behind on just seven minutes, Marc Roberts heading home from a corner.

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Scott Hogan then made it 2-0 just after the midway point, before two minutes into the second period, he tapped into an empty net after the impressive Manchester United loanee Tahith Chong broke away from a home corner.

Late goals from substitutes Gary Gardner and Chuks Aneke saw the Blues add a gloss to proceedings, as Jones said: “I’m really disappointed, a little bit embarrassed by the scoreline and the level of performance but I don’t often get that from this group in terms of being embarrassed.

“I’m always proud of them, they give me everything, today we shot ourselves in the foot from early on.

“We conceded from a set-play which we did last weekend as well, it sets you back.

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"Ironically we started the game so well on Tuesday, we wanted to continue that, but we didn't do the basics well enough today and that's what caused us problems.

“As I said, I’m embarrassed a little bit by the scoreline, but we have to learn from that and go again."

With the first two Birmingham goals coming from set-pieces, it meant at Town had shipped four in the last three matches from such a scenario, something Jones knows is an increasing concern.

He added: “It will be if we continue like that but we've got a lot of people out that we regard as our best headers.

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“We’ve got two six foot two, three, four, five foot centre halves out (Sonny Bradley and Reece Burke), Dan Potts who's arguably our best header is out, so we’ve got a lot of people who do the basics well out.

“At the moment we’ve got people recovering, so we’re a bit makeshift at times.

“We’ve got Peter (Kioso) in the back three who’s a right back, and inexperienced, but we’ve had to do that which is categorically different to them with Harlee Dean with Roberts and (Kristian) Pedersen that must have 900 Championship games between them.

“So we’re a little bit light in that way, we have to get everyone back, but we have to be better in doing the basics than that.”