Hatters chief putting the work in to ensure woeful Hornets performance is never repeated

Luton chief Nathan Jones insists he and his coaching staff will be doing their utmost to ensure the sort of performance that Town offered up during their 4-0 defeat at Watford on Saturday is never repeated.

Going into the game, the visitors were considered as slight favourites in some quarters to leave with all three points after a week in which they had beaten both QPR and Norwich to make it seven games unbeaten.

With the Hornets having lost three in four, blown away 3-0 by Millwall in their previous encounter, conceding all three goals during the first half, the visiting supporters attending Vicarage Road for the first time since 2006 did so with plenty of optimism.

That was shot to pieces after just three minutes though, Keinan Davis outmuscling Sonny Bradley to score, as the hosts added another just before the break.

Two more followed in the second period through Joao Pedro and Ismaila Sarr, while with Gabe Osho sent off late on, it became something of a nightmare afternoon for the Hatters.

Although they were shorn of Henri Lansbury, Dan Potts and Luke Berry due to illness, with Bradley suffering too, Jones didn’t want to use that as an excuse for their woeful display, saying: “I wouldn’t say just because of the illness, we can’t blame that.

“That affected us and had an adverse effect on the squad but we still have to be us.

“We conceded after two minutes so if you gather your thoughts and really be aggressive, we didn’t actually start that badly apart from the goal.

"We had chances ourselves, we had territory, Watford deservedly won but we did things.

“Yes the illness affected us but two, our performance levels were nowhere near there in terms of our aggression, starting positions, boldness, bravery.

"We had three glorious chances, I’m not talking about Allan Campbell’s shot, I’m talking about Gabe Osho, Eli (Elijah Adebayo) and Carlton Morris.

"Three glorious chances to score goals and we didn’t do that.

"Everything we were about we didn’t do and that is really tough and hard to take.

"I don’t mind talking about it because at the end of the day it becomes an elephant in the room.

"It is a performance we were apologetic for and a performance that we will be working extremely hard never to repeat, not just against Watford but against anyone.

"It was an inept performance and categorically different from the two which came before it, which resulted in six points.

"There are extenuating circumstances, third game in a week, we have put in big shifts, played pretty much two of the best sides of the league, then came to Watford who are massively underachieving for the squad they have.

"It was the toughest week possible for us, and it has overshadowed a decent week.”

With the Luton fans leaving before the end, unable to bare the embarrassment any longer, Jones admitted the result had left him with a queasy sensation, as he continued: “It was sickening.

"You have a sick feeling in your stomach, it was horrible.

"We know the importance, I know the importance to the people around me, to the fans and to everyone.

"We have been apologetic, we are sorry for that level of performance but if it had been the first game of the week and then ironically if we had beaten Watford and drawn the other two games or even just picked up one point it would have been a more respectable week and that is the irony in it.”

Although a 4-0 defeat at Town’s sworn enemy was not what Jones had ever wanted to experience, he vowed to take the lessons from it, and is confident Town have it in them to bounce back quickly when facing Sunderland on Saturday.

He added: “You learn from everything, you learn from all of your defeats.

"Some of my worst times in football in the not too recent past have been my biggest learning curves so I’m very comfortable that we will learn from that.

"We as staff have learned, as a club we would have learned from that and it will make us better moving forward.

"Anything that punishes you or hurts, you either wilt or learn, and we won’t wilt.

“We will focus on what we do naturally.

"We bounce back that is what we do, we don’t lose many games and that is because of the group, the team and the way we work.

"I’m not worried or panicking in any kind of way, it is one defeat.

"If we had beaten Watford and lost comfortably to Norwich it would have been a really acceptable week and that is the irony in all of this.

"There is no knee-jerk, we will go back to doing what we do best and that is being consistent and trying to win football games our way.”