Jones felt Town should have been 'out of sight' during first half of Rangers loss

Hatters chief impressed by opening 45 minutes
Town boss Nathan JonesTown boss Nathan Jones
Town boss Nathan Jones

Luton boss Nathan Jones was critical of his side’s inability to kill off hosts QPR during this afternoon’s 3-1 defeat at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.

The Hatters had enjoyed the better of proceedings in the first half, after falling behind to Charlie Austin’s 20th minute goal.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall levelled just before half time, but despite having 17 shots throughout the 90 minutes, Town only managed to hit the target with four of them, as did QPR, only for the hosts to net three of them, Stefan Johansen and Albert Adomah scoring after the break.

Jones said: “I thought first half we should have been out of sight, I thought we had enough opportunities to have killed the game.

“Second half we didn’t really get going, they made an enforced change and that kind of threw us a bit.

“We didn’t really start and then chased the game at the end and ended up losing the game, but I’m really proud of the first half performance.

“I just felt we should have killed the game off, but we didn't show enough quality in the moments and when you don't do that, with a team like QPR they have the quality that can do that.

“That’s it, that’s the level, if you don’t take your chances, if you don't put teams to bed, they will hurt you sooner or later.

"They've got vast Premier League experience, players they’ve got in the building and recruited here, then in January they brought in Premier League experience and quality again, so it's tough to take as I thought we were outstanding first half.”

Despite the defeat, Town had still done enough to finish in 12th place and earn a top half finish, with the best points tally in the second tier since the 1981-82 season, ending up on 62.

Jones added: “I’m relatively happy with that.

“I think we’ve had a magnificent season in terms of that, we’re finding our feet at the level, we wanted to establish ourselves as a Championship side and we have established ourselves as a Championship side, because we’re top half.

“Today if we won we could have gone tenth, if we had taken our chances first half I fully expected us to do that, but that's the level.

“We've had a magnificent season in terms of relative success.

"Not many would class 12th place as a successful season, but the resources we have, the newness of us at this level, it shows we've come a long, long way.”

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