Hatters winger dismayed by Town's body language as he felt Luton 'gave up' at Cardiff

Winger Izzy Jones felt that it looked like Luton ‘gave up’ at times during their 3-1 defeat at League One leaders Cardiff City on Saturday.

The Hatters travelled to Wales with renewed hope, as despite a wretched run of form on their travels, no win in six and four straight losses, Jack Wilshere’s side had produced what many felt was their best performance of a below-par campaign the previous weekend when beating play-off hopefuls Bradford City 2-1 at Kenilworth Road, making it an impressive 10 unbeaten on home soil.

Having battled and scrapped their way to three points against the Bantams, also displaying some real quality on the ball at times too, the Hatters showed precious little of that fighting spirit and class in the first period against an impressive Bluebirds, undone early on when Joel Colwill was able to hold off three Luton players in Gideon Kodua, Joe Johnson and Teden Mengi to then pick out the unmarked David Turnbull who finished with aplomb from close range.

Although Town got themselves back into the contest, Jordan Clark confidently dispatching a 20th minute penalty that was won by Jones himself, the visitors fell apart during a five minute spell just before half time, as they were breached twice in totally avoidable circumstances. First, Ollie Tanner took advantage of a slip from Kasey Palmer to find Colwill, who strode forward to easily beat Josh Keeley and then Perry Ng was afforded all the time and space he needed to hammer home from 25 yards.

Town did get better in the second period, but their table-topping hosts had dropped down the gears, with one eye on Tuesday night by then, as Jones felt that Luton were their own worst enemies, especially during that opening 45 minutes. He said: “I want to say congratulations to Cardiff, the better team on the day. We got back into the game after being under the cosh a bit, got the penalty, scored it and I felt like we were okay at times, but then the last 10 minutes of the first half, we didn't win our individual battles.

"We gifted them a goal and from there, not panic stations, but we lost control, lost momentum and then he scored a worldie. I just felt our body language, we gave up at times. Second half was better, it was like cat and mouse, we gave a better account of ourselves, never gave up, but at this level if you don’t win your one v one battles, your duels, you’re never going to come out on top and that’s what happened. They’re a good team, I wouldn’t say the best we’ve played, but they’re a good team. I just felt at times we gave them too much respect, but it is what it is, we just move on from this result and we’ve got to move forward now as we’ve got another big game on Wednesday.”

Asked how the players can not keep continually throwing the towel in, particularly on the road, and show the kind of resolve they are doing so when the going gets tough on home soil, Jones, who felt it has been a concerning theme all season, added: “It’s stuff that we’ve just got to talk about. We’ve had many honest conversations this season, even when I was injured we had many under (Matt) Bloomfield at the time, and I just feel like it’s only us that can deal with that and sort it out.

"The gaffer can give us the tactics, but it’s us on the pitch that has to take responsibility and this season we haven’t taken a lot of responsibility, hence why where we are where we are right now. I think we’ve got the quality and the players in the changing room to change it. We’ve got the last 15 games of the season, and we need to change it to get into the play-off positions.”