Jones: Defeat at Huddersfield could one of the 'best things' to happen to Luton during run-in

Town boss Nathan Jones insisted that Monday night’s 2-0 defeat at play-off rivals Huddersfield Town could be one of the ‘best things’ to happen to the Hatters ahead of the final five games of the season.

Luton saw their chances at putting daylight between themselves and the chasing pack dented by two second half goals at the John Smith’s Stadium, which means they have now gone three games without a win after coming back from the international break and drawing with both Millwall and Peterborough.

Elijah Adebayo also fluffed the chance to make it 1-1 by missing a penalty, as although the result means Town’s top six ambitions are not quite in their own hands anymore, Middlesbrough three points away but with a game in hand and almost the same goal difference, Jones preferred to put a positive spin on things.

Speaking ahead of an Easter period which sees Luton host Nottingham Forest on Good Friday and then travel to Cardiff City on Easter Monday, he said: “I’ll be deflated later on, but I think it could be one of the best things to happen to us, I really do.

“As when we’ve been in the third place and when we’ve had that game to really cement, we haven’t.

“It’s when we’ve had to chase, we’ve gathered momentum, bang, bang, bang, and it could have come at a good time as if we go bang, bang, bang now, then it’s a wonderful time to do that.

“We’ve been hit on the nose, we usually bounce back, but I think at the minute the group might not be ready to establish itself as a top two, top three, top four side and let's be honest, that was a long shot to be able to do that in this division, but we’ll see, five absolutely glorious games to go.

“Everything’s to gain, we want to achieve something, we believe we can.

“We’re bang on track, if we go and get a certain amount of points which we believe we can then there’s real opportunity.”

After keeping the scores goalless for an hour, the Hatters were breached seconds after Henri Lansbury went off with a neck injury, Dan Potts coming on and heading into the back three as Jones moved Kal Naismith out of defence and into midfield.

Immediately, a throw-in saw Jon Russell escape the attentions of Robert Snodgrass and loop a lob over James Shea before Potts could get out to block, but when asked if he thought that change had an impact in the deadlock being broken, Jones continued: “No, not really, he’s marked, he goes off the back, they throw and then he lobs it into the box, it goes in.

"He hasn’t tried to score from there, there’s an element of fortune with the goal, but then I thought we were excellent, really front-footed.

"We’ve missed a pen, we’ve missed a pen again, we’ve missed big pens and if you remember last year against Middlesbrough, we’ve missed two penalties which could give us four more points, which would push us further on.

"We missed one against Nottingham Forest this year that would have won us the game as they were down to 10 men, so we’ve missed certain things, now others don’t do that and that’s what we’ve got to learn, that’s the killer instinct we need.

"We were really in the ascendancy, it could have been a different game, we don’t know, it’s all shoulda woulda coulda.

"We’re still in a wonderful position, still in a position that everyone would have taken, so let’s not forget that.

"But it’s time that now we have to try by hook or by crook get the points we need.”