Jones warns Luton have to take points or their fate could be sealed

Hatters boss Nathan Jones has warned his side could have their Championship fate sealed this week unless they take points from tonight’s home clash with second bottom Barnsley and Friday night’s trip to fellow strugglers Huddersfield Town.

Saturday’s woeful 5-0 defeat to Reading at Kenilworth Road saw Luton remain bottom of the table, although results elsewhere over the weekend went their way, meaning they are five points from safety with five games to go.

Jones knows that it’s now or never when going up against two relegation rivals in the space of four days, saying: "It's as big a week as the football club’s had in a long time.

“We’ve come off three difficult games against promotion-chasing sides but the effort they had to put in, it showed.

“There was so much wrong (on Saturday) that it was just literally chalk and cheese from the three performances we’d had beforehand.

“What we’ve got to make sure is we do really recover well, because it’s a massive week.

“Two massive, massive games coming up that we have to take points from because if we don’t, then our fate could be sealed.”

When asked how he will prepare for the clash and attempt to lift the players spirits after their humiliating reverse to the Royals on Saturday, Jones continued: "There’s a lot of things you could do, you could get them in to recover, or give them the day off to make sure they’re mentally relaxed, because a lot of it’s mental now as well.

“They’ll be hurting, physically but also mentally, they have to recover, so it’s a fine balance.

“We need to pick a team on Tuesday that will be capable to go again and to get that win.

“We can’t afford to gamble with five or six changes at times, so we’ve got to go again.

"We’ve got to dust them down for a massive game on Tuesday and then we go again on Friday.

“It’s unprecedented times but we’ve got to find a way.”

Jones did feel that Town's two away fixtures in the week leading up to the game, at Swansea and Leeds, where they took four points, played its part in Town's lethargic performance at the weekend.

He said: "We’ve had two massive away games in terms of Swansea away, where we’ve had to put in a real shift to win game, then we’ve had to go to Leeds and had to put in a huge shift.

“That’s taken its toll as today we were flat they probably had six chances and scored five.

“We were just really, really flat, we lacked energy, we lacked real drive in our performance and I can only put that down to the effort they put in.

“It’s very difficult for me to really have a go at them, I’m bitterly disappointed, because these were opportunities these home games.

"But to be fair they’ve given me everything and it showed today that they probably lacked that little bit of energy from the exertion they’ve had over the last week."

Opponents Barnsley also suffered a hefty defeat on Saturday as after not conceding a goal in their three matches since the Championship resumed, were hammered 4-0 by Stoke City.

Jones added: "They’ve had an away journey, have to travel all the way back to Barnsley then come back down here, so they’ll be in a similar situation to what we were.

“It’s tough, these are not normal circumstances, where you always get time to work with them.

“We’ve got nine games in just over 30 days and that doesn’t happen unless you are a Champions League side.

“You’ve got to make sure you’re careful with them, you’ve got to dust them down, prepare well, it’s going to be a tough, tough game because there’s so much at stake.

“We’ve got to get them ready and we will."