Luton defender Mengi calls defeat to his former Red Devils side a real 'sickener'

Luton defender Teden Mengi called the 2-1 defeat to his former side Manchester United at Kenilworth Road last night a real ‘sickener’.

The Hatters went into the game eager to claim what would have been a famous victory over the Red Devils, but saw those hopes seemingly shattered after just six minutes, Rasmus Højlund taking advantage of Amari’i Bell’s mistake to beat Thomas Kaminski and then divert Alejandro Garnacho volley into the net to put his side 2-0 in front.

However, Carlton Morris headed Luton back into the game before the quarter hour mark to set up what was a rousing contest at Kenilworth Road. Despite trying their hardest, the Hatters couldn’t find the net again, as Mengi saw his former employers, with whom he spent 14 years, take the points back to the north west with them.

Asked to sum up the match, Mengi told Luton’s official website: “It’s a tough one to take, it’s a sickener as I feel like we dominated both halves. We were brave on the ball, obviously an early mistake within a minute, we concede a goal, and then not long after we concede another. A lucky deflection, but I feel like without the mistakes and the lucky deflection, we go on and win that game.

“They can have their arguments, they created a lot of chances as well, but so did we. If we had a little bit more quality and detail in the final third, we can put away our chances as we did create a hell of a lot of chances, but it’s a sickener.”

On just what it was like trying to turn around the start which saw the Hatters picking the ball out of the net twice early on, Mengi added: “It’s a real tough mountain to climb, but I think there’s something special in this team, that I feel like every single team needs but we have it in abundance, which is a real togetherness and family spirit. We can keep going no matter what’s put in front of us, so to play the way we played after going two-nil down so early it's incredible.

"We've got to take the positives out of that, we’ve got to pick our heads up and focus on the next game, Liverpool, a very, very good opponent. We can’t dwell on this result, we’ve just got to look at the positives, look at what went wrong, rectify it and take it into the next game. We really did keep knocking on the door, just on another day we get two, three goals, but there’s no time to dwell on it, we just have to rest, recover, and go again.”