Hatters midfielder felt Town were too 'nicey-nicey' as Villa defeat leaves him feeling 'sick'

Midfielder Jordan Clark admitted he was left feeling ‘sick’ after Town conceded a last minute winner to lose 3-2 in their Premier League clash against Aston Villa on Saturday.

Luton had gone in at the break trailing 2-0 after a first half that saw the visitors take what looked like a commanding lead, in-form striker Ollie Watkins furthering his Euro 2024 credentials with two clinical finishes. However, the Hatters then brought the Kenilworth Road crowd to life with a rousing comeback, as Tahith Chong and Carlton Morris netted within six minutes of each other to restore parity and give Town every chance of earning at least a point for their troubles. As happened against Liverpool and Arsenal though, the top four chasers were able to nick it at the death, Moussa Diaby’s cross headed home by Lucas Digne at the back post after the sub had evaded Issa Kabore to break the hosts’ hearts and condemn them to a fourth straight loss.

Speaking afterwards, Clark said: “I feel sick, I really do. Chasing games every week is not good, giving two goals away every week, a mountain to climb every week, but it shows the character we’ve got. I know we keep saying it every week so it’s a bit boring at the minute, but you can’t keep giving 2-0 head starts away. We fight to the end and then obviously switch off at the last minute for the goal which is disappointing, because from 2-0 down a point’s a good point in the end.

“It’s tough, we keep making the same mistakes every week, so it’s something we need to address. It’s nothing to do with tactics from us, it's just individual errors that are costing us. We just need to stick together as a team and iron it out ourselves in the changing rooms and in the meetings and we need to improve quickly as we’re running out of games. We said our home games are going to be vital this season so that’s another one that’s slipped away from us and we’re on a bit of a losing streak in the league which we need to change.”

One of the main reasons that Town found themselves starting down the barrel when the teams swapped ends was due a first half performance in which for whatever reason, they weren’t their usual attacking selves, holding on the ball for far too long at times, and barely causing World Cup winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to dirty his gloves. At the other end, Thomas Kaminski was having yet another terrific afternoon, with wonderful saves from Ramsey, Watkins and Morgan Rogers, while Watkins and Douglas Luiz both put good opportunities wide.

Despite the brilliance of the Belgian, Clark hadn’t been happy with how he and his team went about it, saying: “I think we were off it, it just felt so slow when we had the ball. The gameplan we had, the balls over the top were just short, or overhit and it just wasn’t working. The high press which is usually really good for us, it was a bit half and half, not aggressive like we normally are, it just made it so easy for them to get out, then up to the strikers and their attacking players. We were just either not tight or they were in behind, we were just off it and we weren’t us which is frustrating

“He (boss Rob Edwards) was disappointed with us a little bit as the stuff we worked on, we never carried it out. The quality or the press, or anything, it was a bit lacklustre. We were a bit too nicey-nicey really. We know when teams come here we’ve got to upset them a little bit. It was a bit of a funny one as everyone knew we were off it, so we needed a reaction. At half time we had nothing to lose, which is not a good thing to say, but we said if we got the first goal, we know we can do it, especially at the Kenny. We get one and two and then we can go on and win the game. When it got back to 2-2, I felt there was only one winner then.

"I thought it was coming, we had a lot of chances, a couple of misses and the worst you get is a 2-2 and you take a point away from it, but to lose the game is a bit of a sickener. They’re a top side, I heard their fans singing Champions League at one stage, so it just shows you how well they’re doing this year. But when you get it back to 2-2 and we were so dominant in the second half, you’ve just got to not lose the game, that’s the main thing, especially in this league. A bit of quality and you switch off in the last minute and you get punished, it’s happening too much to us at the minute.

The one bright spot for Luton though was that both relegation rivals Everton and Nottingham Forest lost their matches, with Brentford drawing against Chelsea. Crystal Palace also went down 3-1 at Spurs, while behind Town, Burnley failed to make up any ground when losing 2-0 to Bournemouth on Sunday, Sheffield United entertaining title-chasing Arsenal this evening. Clark added: “You can look at it two ways, we missed out on getting a point on the rest of the teams, or you can be a bit fortunate in the fact that they’ve lost and we’ve lost as well, so you’re still in the same place. It’s just one of them, we’ve got to focus on next week now. On Monday morning, we’ll iron a few things out and go through where we need to improve.”