Town chief admits Hull's 8-0 thumping by Wigan wasn't 'ideal' for the Hatters

Luton boss Nathan Jones admitted that Hull City’s 8-0 humbling at the hands of Wigan Athletic on Tuesday night wasn't an ‘ideal' result for his side ahead of their trip to the KCOM Stadium this weekend.

The Hatters’ relegation rivals conceded a remarkable seven goals inside the opening 45 minutes at the DW Stadium in midweek, as although they were only breached once in the second period, it was still an almighty hammering.

Jones is wary of a reaction from the Tigers, although doesn't think looking at the way in which Luton hit back from their own debacle, winning 2-1 against Wigan after being walloped 7-0 by Brentford back in November, wasn't anything to go by.

Speaking about the clash, where a win would see Luton leapfrog their opponents in the table, he said: “All that does is show Luton can bounce back, I can’t second guess anyone else and I don’t want to.

“It wasn’t an ideal result because there was a lot of eyes on certain things and we would have probably preferred a draw or a narrow Wigan win but that hasn’t been the case.

“The game could go either way and all we can do is just prepare us.

"I don’t want to keep repeating that because that’s a cliché but that is all we can do.

“It was a shock, we’ve had a couple here where we’ve been the ones dishing out the eights and sevens, we've also been on the end of a seven and they’re difficult results to take.

"What I imagine Grant (McCann, Hull boss) will be looking for is a reaction, now how big a reaction he gets, I don’t know.

"What we can’t do is second guess that.

"We have to be prepared and ready ourselves and if we play to the maximum of our ability and then we come short, then we hold our hands up.

"What would be a real shame is if we don't turn up the weekend and we allow Hull to get a foothold in the game and that’s what we don’t want.”

Jones also believed that facing a City side, who are level on points with Town, so soon after their demolition is just another example of Luton coming against a team at their lowest ebb since he took over.

He continued: "I’ve got to be honest, I think we’ve been a touch unfortunate with certain teams.

"When Reading came here, they didn’t start very well and there was a kind of realisation for them that, 'hang on, we could get sucked in (to the relegation fight) here if we don’t get a result,' and they’ve really went for it against us.

"We were on the back of two massive away performances and got a bit unlucky.

“QPR, they had probably one of their worst performances they’ve had against Sheffield Wednesday (3-0 defeat) on the weekend and then they had a retaliation against us.

"So we have no idea how Hull prepare, but that won’t come into it anyway, it’s all about us.

"We’ve tried to concentrate, since I’ve come into the club, not just now, but since 2016, on us being the best version of ourselves.

"That's imposing ourselves and that's what we've tried to do and that won't change for this weekend."

The Town chief has no experience himself of ever going into a game on the back of such a scoreline, with 5-0 the worst defeat he has ever suffered in either his playing days or managerial career.

He added: "No I haven’t been involved (in an 8-0).

"Obviously my biggest defeat in terms of a player or a manager is Reading the other day so we had to come back from that.

"I don’t want to give anything away and I don’t want to try and advise anyone because I’m not that good or experienced enough to do that but I’m sure Grant will prepare in a way that he knows.

"Hopefully we’re not on the end of a backlash but as I said, we will be as prepared as we possibly can to go and win the game, not wait and see what Hull do."