Hatters chief annoyed by timing and manner of Lions' first goal

Town manager felt half time whistle should have been blown
Action from the Hatters 2-0 defeat at Millwall last nightAction from the Hatters 2-0 defeat at Millwall last night
Action from the Hatters 2-0 defeat at Millwall last night

Luton boss Nathan Jones was bitterly disappointed with both the manner and the timing of Millwall’s opening goal at the New Den last night.

A raft of corners in first half stoppage time ended with Matt Smith rising highest to head back across goal, Town defender Martin Cranie unluckily diverting the ball over the line.

However, it occurred well over the three minutes of stoppage time that had been signalled by the fourth official, after midfielder Glen Rea had gone down with a blood injury in the first period.

Jones said: “We conceded a goal right before half time and we thought it was well over.

“The goal is a real poor goal, I’ve watched the goal back and it’s a terrible goal to give away.

“Our biggest 6ft 7ins defender doesn’t go and head it, in the third, fourth, fifth minute of injury time, whatever it is.

“It was well over the allotted time, that’s the frustrating thing for us, but you’ve just got to head it and we didn’t, we didn’t do it well enough.

"It was weird as the three minutes was up, it was three minutes 20 when he took the corner, we flicked it, it went out, they had another corner, it was well over.

“If it had gone out for a goal kick, he’d (referee Tony Harrington) have blown up, so very, very strange.

"That's the thing that cost us, but we've got to get our head on one more corner.

"We couldn't clear our lines, we didn't do the basics well.

"We've been used to keeping clean sheets, but at the minute we’ve gone back to having to score two a game to get a result in the last two games and that's not right.”

With the lead, Millwall were able to sit back in the second period and then add to their advantage late on through Connor Mahoney’s pinpoint angled strike which went in off the post to complete a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Jones added: “We’re on the back foot, we changed at half time, if we’d have gone in at 0-0 it could’ve been a different game.

"They might have had to come out a little bit more, it would’ve left more gaps.

“Once they had the lead, we controlled the game in the second half but they sat in and we couldn’t penetrate them and that, sometimes, is the lack of quality that we have.

"What we needed to do was move the ball quickly and penetrate and play through.

"We had overloads in certain areas that we didn’t use, and we weren’t brave enough.

"We didn't really look like we were going to score tonight, we lacked penetration and that was moving the ball quickly.

"The second goal is a really poor goal to give away as we're in possession, we give it away in the middle of the park and I don't know how he scored from there, but we can't just go chasing stuff all the time as you can always score a goal.

"At the minute we're conceding too easily, Saturday (against Stoke) was exactly the same.

"We've conceded two from set-plays now and we haven't conceded for a long, long time from set-plays, and that's frustrating."