Jones was bursting with pride after Town's display at Toon

An emotional Hatters boss Nathan Jones was left immensely proud of his club both on and off the field during the 3-1 FA Cup defeat at Premier League Newcastle United on Saturday.
Town's magnificent travelling fans at NewcastleTown's magnificent travelling fans at Newcastle
Town's magnificent travelling fans at Newcastle

It had looked at one point that it could turn into an afternoon to forget for the Luton chief and the army of travelling fans, as they trailed 3-0 at half time, conceding all three in just nine minutes.

However, Danny Hylton netted early after the interval to start a thrilling second half which saw chances at both ends, as Hylton had another goal chalked off, while Elliot Lee smacked the bar too.

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After allowing himself time to reflect, Jones said: “The overriding thing for me is I’m immensely proud of my football club.

“How we conducted ourselves, how we went about our business on Saturday and in the lead up to it, was wonderful.

“To take between seven and a half and eight thousand fans away and for them to conduct themselves in the way, the manner that they did, the sea of orange that travelled up and was around the city and in the stadium, made me immensely proud.

“Coming off the bus I really had goosebumps, I was welling up as the pride was unbelievable, and to hear them sing and to get behind us even going 3-0 down was phenomenal, and I thank them for that.

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“Then how we went about our business as a club, our players, how we approached the game was first class.

Luton boss Nathan Jones makes sure his players thank the visiting supportersLuton boss Nathan Jones makes sure his players thank the visiting supporters
Luton boss Nathan Jones makes sure his players thank the visiting supporters

“There’s a tinge of disappointment, because we had a nine minute period where we let ourselves down, we really let ourselves down.

“We could do nothing with the second goal, because it took that many ricochets, it’s part and parcel.

“But we made two fundamental errors for the first and third goal, which really set us back, but then we showed just the most immense character to not buckle, to not go under at a Premier League club.

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“We went out and we went even more positive against them. We pressed them high, we did all the good things we did, we got the goal, then we had a perfectly good goal (disallowed) which would have made the tie far, far more interesting.

Luton boss Nathan Jones makes sure his players thank the visiting supportersLuton boss Nathan Jones makes sure his players thank the visiting supporters
Luton boss Nathan Jones makes sure his players thank the visiting supporters

“But we didn’t let that affect us and we kept going and kept going, so it was a real good end to end game.

“We could have nicked one late on with Gambo (Luke Gambin), we’ve hit the bar, but we’ve actually gone there and had a Premier League game against a Premier League side.

“Whether naively or not, we haven’t sat back and just defended, we’ve actually gone at them to try and test them and to try and test ourselves, our structure, in that environment.

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“I was immensely proud of them, because apart from a nine minute period, it was a real, real good game and a wonderful experience.

“I was beaming with pride, I really was and that’s my overriding emotion.”