ITV pundit Roy Keane felt there was plenty to 'admire' about Luton but warned Town to 'be smarter' defensively

Former Manchester United and Nottingham Forest midfielder Roy Keane felt there was plenty to 'admire’ about the Hatters efforts during their FA Cup thrashing at the hand of Manchester City last night, although urged Town to ‘smarten up’ defensively if they want to survive in the Premier League this season.

Ahead of kick-off, things looked ominous for Rob Edwards and his players as opposite number Pep Guardiola signalled his clear intent to reach the quarter-finals, picking all of his big guns including Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva. They went on to simply blow Luton away on the night, Haaland scoring a stunning five goals, even earning an ovation from the home fans when he was replaced late on, with De Bruyne earning four assists as well.

Trailing 3-0, the battling Hatters had given themselves a chance when Jordan Clark curled home a wonderful effort from 20 yards, as he then made it 3-2 early in the second period with another unerring finish of real quality. However, the holders proved too strong, netting a further three times, as Keane, who was on duty for ITV, said: “You have to admire Luton, a tough night for them, they're up against one of the best teams we’ve ever seen, but they scored two brilliant goals tonight.

"Excellent play by (Ross) Barkley, Clark lovely first touch and then you think can he finish it? It gave everyone a lift in the stadium and they’re thinking, listen it may be game on, he scored two brilliant goals and he won’t even get the headlines tonight, it will be Haaland. To be fair they stuck at it but it was a tough night for them.”

Luton had struggled to cope with the pace and movement from their opponents all evening, City raining 17 shots down on Tim Krul’s goal, 15 of them on target. Haaland in particular made the most of Town’s desire to boldly go one v one with their opponents and leave acres of space in behind, with De Bruyne sending the Norwegian clean through on three occasions in the first half, two of them ending up in the back of the net.

Going into the Hatters' attempts at trying and failing to keep the ball out, Keane continued: “It is naive defending from Luton, let’s not get away from it, but you’ve got to be punished and I think what will surprise teams a lot, definitely Luton tonight was their running off the ball. Sometimes you think City are going to play in front of you, but they’ve got players getting into space and then they’ve got the quality to produce. It’s a one touch finish, very difficult to defend against. It can look so simple, but these are world class players, world class.”

Boss Edwards stated afterwards that despite Luton now conceding 19 goals in their last five games, including four to both Liverpool and Newcastle, plus three to Sheffield United, he won’t be changing his approach in the Hatters’ battle to stay up. That kind of intent drew praise from both Keane and fellow pundit Ian Wright, although the ex-Republic of Ireland player urged them to sharpen up and quickly if they want to give themselves any chance of avoiding relegation.

He said: “They definitely have to be smarter as they can’t keep giving up the goals they're giving up, particularly at home over the last few weeks. You admire a manager who’s saying we’re going to be bold, we’re not going to change, but you can’t keep giving up goals like they have, as at that rate, they will be going back to the Championship.”

Meanwhile, ex-England and Arsenal forward Wright added: “Today will be a massive eye opener simply because they were punished in every aspect of their mistakes. The amount of goals they’re shipping, they have to tighten that up as yes he’s got a way of playing and they have to stick to it, but if he’s going to do that they’re going to have to do more in terms of defending as a team to not give away so many chances.

"What we’ve seen is even against a City side they’re capable of creating and scoring goals, we saw that with Ross Barkley today. So they’ve got to learn from what they’ve done from today, but they’re learning from the very, very best.”