Morrell's cameo one of the only bright points for Luton boss in Cardiff defeat

Luton boss Nathan Jones felt midfielder Joe Morrell’s second half cameo was one of the few crumbs of comfort he could take from Saturday’s 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Cardiff City.

The 23-year-old came off the bench for the final 19 minutes with Town trailing 3-0, a scoreline Sheyi Ojo added to with time running out.

However, Morrell at least had an impact on proceedings, looking to get on the ball, driving forward in possession and was inches away from a superb consolation, his 25-yard drive hitting the inside of the post and flying out.

The Welsh international, who hadn't featured since being taken off at half time in the 1-0 win against Rotherham earlier this month, is surely now in contention for a start against Norwich CIty tomorrow night, as Jones said: “He was excellent, he didn’t give the ball away, he got on it, was brave and that’s why he’s been brought here.

“He’s been a bit unfortunate, but we’re going to need the squad, he knows that, we know that, and it’s just about getting to a level where these things don’t happen.

“Now look, it's one bad performance in five, so it’s not the end of the world, but we have to be better than that, as that’s a similar performance to what happened at Millwall (2-0 defeat).”

Striker Sam Nombe was also on the pitch at the time, the attacker thrown on five minutes before the break as Jones made a double change with his side trailing 2-0.

On how the forward borrowed from MK Dons got on, the Luton chief continued: “He did okay, he’s still learning the game, we wanted a runner on there, but it probably wasn’t the game to integrate him with very little space.

"Cardiff defended well, they denied space between lines, they were right at it, it was probably the best Cardiff have been.

"You asked me if it was a good time to play them, because of the pressure they were under, but they showed they’re right behind their manager and we did nothing to earn anything from today.”

Despite the result, Jones wasn't going too overboard in his criticism of the team, who have made an excellent start to their second season in the second tier.

He said: "What happens in the changing room is us, we keep that in.

"There were words at half time and then afterwards you can rant and rave, have a fight, whatever, but we have to solve problems really.

"This is a good group, a group that works hard, that defends well and has been very good in terms of points wise and results and performances.

"We’ve only had a few real bad performances since I've come back in May, so it’s about analysing those and being better.

"But today we were nowhere near, and they know that, and I’ve told them that in no uncertain terms.

"So we can keep ranting and raving and knocking them down, but the big thing is we have to learn from it and dust ourselves down as we have another massive game on Wednesday."

It doesn't come much tougher than in midweek either, Luton at home to table-topping Norwich, who have been in superb form on their travels.

Jones wants a reaction from whoever he puts on the pitch, adding: "Hopefully, but I wanted a reaction at half time and I didn't really get one, so they're going to have to do that.

"We’ll dust ourselves down and then we’ll go again, as it’s a tough week now, Norwich and Swansea, two big games.

"They keep coming thick and fast, but we’ve had probably had two bad performances in about eight or nine, as Brentford we weren‘t great.

"So what we have to make sure is that we don’t make this become a recurring theme."