Hatters boss not worried about gaining revenge over Reading after thumping defeat

Luton chief Nathan Jones isn’t particularly interested about righting any wrongs when heading to Reading in the Carabao Cup this evening.

The Royals handed Town their only defeat since Jones returned to the club in May, and it was by some margin too, running out 5-0 winners at Kenilworth Road back in July, Yakou Meite scoring four times, including an 18-minute hat-trick.

At the time, the defeat looked to have fatally punctured Town’s homes of staying in the Championship, but the Hatters recovered and went on to win three of their last five, with two draws, to stay up on the final day.

Jones now takes his side to the Madejski Stadium this evening, but on trying to gain some revenge after being blown away on their own patch, he said: “It’s weird, whether blown away, in terms of the scoreline, 100 per cent, it’s just they probably had six chances and scored five of them.

“They were very clinical on the day, fair play, we were very lacklustre, it wasn’t a performance we put in in any of the other games since, pre-season, post lockdown, in terms of our warm up for that campaign and now.

“So I wouldn't say it’s righting wrongs, I wouldn’t change a thing that we did post lockdown because we achieved our goal and maybe the fact that we got beat so heavily really focused everyone.

“So I’m not looking too much upon that, this will be a different game I’m sure and hopefully with a different outcome.”

The Royals had been managed by Mark Bowen during that game, with the Welshman having left the club last month just a few days after Serbian Veljko Paunovic was appointed.

The 43-year-old is something of an unknown quantity to Jones, having managed his country at U18, U19 and U20 level, before heading to Major League Soccer side Chicago Fire, leaving in November 2019.

He has already picked up a first league win, beating Derby County 2-0 on Saturday to move second in the table, while also seeing off Colchester United 3-1 to set up the tie against Luton.

Jones said: “Obviously he has had a good start, I think there was work done prior.

"John O’Shea (first team coach) has got good people there and they added another coach as well from Manchester United (Quinton Fortune) so they have good pedigree.

“Reading are quite innovative with a lot of their managers, they don’t go for the obvious choice and they have had good success with that, especially Jaap Stam.

“They have got a pedigree of going a little bit further afield and I’m sure this manager is an excellent manager.

"As I said, a great start to his Reading career so something will have to give.”

Town have struggled at Reading in recent years, losing their last six visits, scoring twice and and conceding 20, without a win since August 1999.

When asked if he had enjoyed any success against the Royals himself, Jones added: “Ironically it was my first taste of managerial action, I was caretaker manager at Brighton, Steve Clarke was at Reading and we ended up drawing 2-2.

"Two-nil down after 11 minutes so it wasn’t the best start, but we rallied, equalised late on and probably should have won the game.

“I’ve had good battles against them, we got promoted ahead of them when I was at Brighton, Steve Coppell left to go to them so they’re a good side.

"Recently a Premier League side, wonderful players, so it’s going to be a real tough game but these are the teams you want to test yourself against."