Jones happy to get through in FA Cup after admitting Town were nowhere near their best

Luton boss Nathan Jones was happy that his side were able to reach the FA Cup fourth round with a 4-0 victory over League Two Harrogate Town this afternoon despite being well below their best.

The Hatters struggled to get going for large periods of the first half following 29 days without a match due to Covid outbreaks, as the impressive visitors looked more than capable of causing an upset, but still managed to lead 1-0 at the break through Elijah Adebayo's superb finish from 20 yards.

It was a different story in the second period, Luton upping the ante to score a further three times, Cameron Jerome, Kal Naismith and the returning Luke Berry on target, although Town were indebted to some fine saves from James Shea that prevented a nervous last 15 minutes, as their opponents could count themselves unlucky to be on the end of such an unflattering scoreline.

On the victory, Jones said: “We haven’t played any football in a month, we’ve given them a big week this week in terms of training and in numbers as we’ve got to get up to speed, so it was a gamble.

“We’ve got a lot players who haven't played in a long time, so it showed, but still, we’ve been a mile off our levels of intensity, of energy, of quality, of work-rate, of defensive prowess and we’ve managed to win the game 4-0, so it’s not a bad world is it?

“With the greatest respect if we’d have been playing Bournemouth today we’d have got punished, it was that type of game, but that’s the way of the world we live in.

“We didn't choose to have Covid, we didn't choose to have the games called off, two of the games were called off not our doing, so it’s just the way it is.

“We knew this would be our first game back, we’d have to get then prep worked, we knew it was a stern test and we treated it right.

"We made the changes we need to and a lot of people had minutes and that’s what it was about.

“We’re in the next round, credit to Harrogate they're a good side, Simon’s (Weaver) done a great job there, but we won the game 4-0.

"So let’s not forget that even though we were nowhere near our lives and although it could have been a different story, it wasn’t.”