Luton boss eager not to put any blame on Adebayo following spot-kick miss against Terriers

Luton boss Nathan Jones wasn’t about to lay the blame at the door of striker Elijah Adebayo after his missed penalty during Monday night’s 2-0 loss at Huddersfield.

Town’s leading scorer stepped up with 20 minutes to go after James Bree was clipped by Danel Sinani inside the area, with a wonderful chance to level the scores after Luton had trailed to Jon Russell’s goal on the hour mark.

However, as he had done in the away game at Nottingham Forest earlier in the season, Adebayo couldn’t find the net, this time seeing his effort clip the outside of the post on its way behind, whereas at the City Ground, he had been denied by keeper Brice Samba.

The forward, who has notched 16 goals in all competitions so far this term, including three spot-kicks, was unable to hit the heights which has seen him dominate opposing defences at times on the night either, as Jones said: “No he wasn’t, he was way off it for his own standards and he sets high standards.

"Then when it’s like that, it’s further compounded, similar at Forest when he missed a pen at a key time, and that’s big. It could be an extra three points, could be an extra four points and then it’s a different thing.

"We can’t afford to do that as we’re at our limit, but he’ll come back, he’s been excellent this year, let’s not put any blame because he’s been wonderful.

"He’s been a real good focal point for us and we go again Friday and he’s got to be back at it.”

When asked if a senior player should have recognised that Adebayo wasn’t quite at his best and taken the responsibility himself, Jones continued: “It’s an interesting one and I could be brutally honest here as he never looks like missing unless he’s not quite at it.

"He had a difficult night at Forest away, and he took it and he missed, but he believes in himself and he’s a young striker.

"He’s a young striker learning his trade and this is his first full season in the Championship, so let’s not forget that.

"He’s done wonderful for us, he’s been absolutely superb, so it’s easy to point fingers, but we’ve still got do defend better.

"If we defend better and he misses a pen, we draw 0-0, but we haven’t, we’ve switched off on two occasions which is not unforgivable, but very difficult to stomach for me.

"As when you prepare and you do stuff and then when Naby Sarr comes on, you kind of thing, he’s six foot five, he’s going to be a threat, so pick him up.

"That’s the naivety we’ve shown and that’s maybe a lack of experience or naivety if you like, but if we’d have just done the basics we’d have got a point as second half we were the better side.

"First half, yes it was a little bit passive, but they sat in and hit us on the counter attack.

“The crowd was getting on to them, so we’ve shown we can do both and we were brave, we were bold, we went after them, tried to press them and sometimes we get hurt and we got hurt today.

"Not from us being too brave and bold and getting picked off, but we got hurt from switching off and being naive and that’s difficult for me to take.

"But so much to play for, let’s be positive, let’s not be down and think ‘okay what we have got to do?’ Not ‘what haven’t we done, what have we got to do now?

"Let’s be honest, you win your home games, you’re in the Championship play-offs.”