Luton striker admits Town's embarrassed players have to take the blame for horrendous away form
Goalscorer reacts to a sixth straight defeat on the road
Luton striker Jacob Brown admitted that Town’s players have to take the blame for horrendous run of form on the road this season, and not manager Rob Edwards, after they lost a sixth successive game when being beaten 4-2 by Norwich City on Saturday.
Having gone ahead in the first half through Elijah Adebayo’s cool finish, the Hatters were then behind by the break, Ante Crnac taking advantage of some absolutely woeful defending to find the net twice. Brown himself then put the visitors back in front just after the break, but in the final 10 minutes, Luton’s back-line fell apart again as Emiliano Marcondes and Borja Sainz both pounced on further defensive failings to find the net and claim all three points for the Canaries.
It saw manager Edwards refuse to take responsibility for the outcome, preferring to lay that firmly at the door of his players on the afternoon, which was something Brown concurred with when he faced the press afterwards, saying: “We’re not going to hide away from the fact that we've not been good enough, especially away from home. In all fairness to the gaffer, he always comes and takes the stick, but I feel like today and probably not even just this week it is on us.
“We’re the ones on the pitch making the errors, it’s not the gaffer’s fault. He obviously gets a lot of the blame which I don’t think is fair, as the gaffer can’t come on the pitch and make a clearance rather than miskicking it, he can’t track a runner, it’s us on the pitch. We need to stand up and be counted, take accountability. It’s obviously difficult as if a player makes a mistake, he knows he’s made a mistake, but what can you do to try and change that, you just have to not do it.
"It’s easier said than done, it is us as players that need to take the blame for that. Every week we want to do the best we can and it is on us out there. The fans come and they support us all the way, and it’s embarrassing going over at the end and we have to take it, it’s what we deserve and we don’t want to have that feeling. When a player makes a mistake he’s not doing it on purpose, I can’t put my finger on what it is at the minute, we need to change and the anger from whoever it’s from it’s deserved.”
Having pegged the Canaries back at 2-2, then despite not creating much themselves, the Hatters looked like they were capable of holding on for a welcome point to end their barren run outside of Bedfordshire, until those hopes were ripped apart in the closing stages. Brown, who had gone off for Cauley Woodrow at this point, knew his side had been far too easy to score against once more, as they shipped a 21st goal of the season on their travels, and a 20th in just six matches, adding: “When we got back to 2-2 from then on we were on top in the game.
"The way we came out in the second half we were pressing a lot better, getting higher up the pitch, causing them more problems and then just gifted them a goal and then another goal, so it’s all on us. We did well to go 1-0 up and then we gifted them two goals, we did the exact same thing in the second half. We can’t expect to get anything from the game when we play like that, you look at the travelling fans, it’s sold out and it’s not good enough.
“I don’t know how many goals it is in the last three away games, but it’s clearly something that we need to be better at. We need to be more resilient, stop gifting silly goals. I know we say it a lot, but we just have to work on improving that now.”