Jones: It looked like we were treading in quicksand at times

Hatters boss Graeme Jones felt his side looked as though they were 'treading in quicksand' at times during their 1-1 draw with Stoke City this afternoon.

Up against one of their relegation rivals, and playing their third game in seven days, Town could never come close to repeating the kind of display that saw Brentford dispatched 2-1 on Tuesday night, falling behind to Sam Vokes’ ninth minute opener.

Despite looking lethargic and jaded for large periods, they managed to rescue a point through James Collins’ stoppage time penalty, as Jones said: “I never give in, ever, not with these lads, and they’re (Stoke) a very, very experienced Championship side.

“You have a look at their group of players and their ages.

"There's 11 men on the pitch for them who've got a lot of know-how, a lot of international experience.

"I can go through their team, so they should be able to control certain moments.

“We were treading in quicksand for large parts of the game, Tuesday night really took its toll on us physically.

“I didn't see the spark we had then, but in those situations the key for us is to get something out of it.

"I've been speaking to the boys before Christmas about we need to accumulate points and that’s what we've done today.

"We've managed to nick a point and that might be enough at the end of the season."

Jones only made one change for the game, bringing in Chelsea loanee Izzy Brown for Luke Berry, but admitted he would have altered more if the personnel was available.

He continued: “I didn't have the situation where I could rotate as much as I wanted.

“Izzy Brown was half fit, Izzy trained two minor sessions.

"Luke Berry felt his thigh in the last bit of training yesterday, I didn’t have Sonny (Bradley) available, didn't have Kaz (Kazenga LuaLua) available.

"So unlike the previous three three game week it was very, very difficult to freshen it up and going forward you need that.”

However, Jones did defend his side when asked if they had lacked urgency during the encounter, adding: "Urgency is the wrong word, as these boys have got urgency, they know the severity of everything, every action.

“Sometimes as a footballer you just can't pick your legs up and today was one of those days where I think that rotation was needed.

“I asked the lads to go again, we've managed to get something out of the game, so I’m delighted.”