Luton chief warns players he won't put up with the lack of fight shown in Tigers' late mauling

With five minutes to go and trailing 1-0, the Hatters, despite never being at their best during the second half, were still in with a chance of rescuing a point.

However, Kamil Grosicki took advantage of some lacklustre defending to put the game beyond Town, with Kevin Stewart then netting after a terrible mix-up between Dan Potts and Simon Sluga.

Jones said: “We had a couple of chances, we were building momentum for maybe five, 10 minutes (in the second half).

“(Ryan) Tunnicliffe had a shot, there was a great header in the six yard box, the ball on the rebound was nearly being over the line, after that I felt like we were spent, and that's my disappointment,

“That resistance and that fight, especially when the second goal went in, I can't have that.

“Subjectively, I think physically, we couldn’t sustain the performance of the first half.

“We out-worked them, we out-possessed them first half.

"I think we were 60, 40 in possession and maybe it caught up with us late in the game.

“They sat in, they played on our mistakes, we had possession in all three goals when we conceded, so sometimes it’s fine margins.

“But the disappointment of the second and third goal, I can’t have that, I can’t swallow that, I’m afraid.,

"In any team I’m involved in, I can’t swallow that.”

Jones felt that Town had enjoyed the better of the opening 45 minutes, but conceded they were the architects of their own downfall for all three of the visitors’ goals.

He added: “I was pleased with the first half performance and I thought the goal was coming.

“I asked us to be consistent with our football performance as we had been in the first half and we couldn't sustain it.

“Even then when I look at the first goal back, if James Collins flicks the ball on, we've got two spare players free in the box, and that's the margins in football.

“James doesn't flick it on, they go down the pitch, and we concede and that the fine margins we're dealing with in the Championship.

“The second goal's a long ball, it's individual errors, the third goal is comical and really it's a 1-0 game.”