Town chief annoyed with his side for conceding against Forest after prior warnings

Luton boss Graeme Jones was far from happy with the manner in which his side gifted both goals to opponents Nottingham Forest during their 2-1 defeat on Saturday.
Hatters boss Graeme Jones dishes out instructions during Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Nottingham ForestHatters boss Graeme Jones dishes out instructions during Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest
Hatters boss Graeme Jones dishes out instructions during Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest

The first came from a poor set-play by the Hatters that Forest cleared easily and from a hopeful ball down the middle of the field, experienced striker Lewis Grabban escaped the attentions of Sonny Bradley and then James Bree, who didn't cover himself in glory, to coolly beat James Shea.

Jones said: “It was our wide free kick if I remember.

“We’ve got a lot of bodies forward, because we are good at set-plays for.

“I think Pelly (Mpanzu) took it. Maybe the delivery’s not as accurate as Pelly doesn’t take them, they win the header, we’re still two v one, all we’ve got to do is deal with it and we don’t.

“That’s an area where I can’t do anything about that.

“I can get the numbers right but players have to deal with that and that’s my disappointment.

“He’s a proven Championship player (Grabban), so if you flip it, we’ve got Lewis Grabban in the team, you would have seen a different outcome, but we’re not in that position.”

The Reds’ second when it came saw the dangerous Joe Lolley allowed to cross from the right, with Sammy Ameobi given time and space to control, turn, and fire past Shea with the aid of a deflection off Bradley.

Jones continued: “It was a symptom of how Forest made us play.

“Remember you get 11 bodies behind the ball by going long, but with the greatest respect to James (Collins), James is okay in the air, he’s not a (Matt) Smith at Millwall, or a (Aleksander) Mitrovic, or a (Lukas) Jutkiewicz, he’s not.

“So we had to try and go around and every time we tried to play internally we got countered.

“We executed that maybe 50 per cent of the time and lost it 50 per cent of time and played into their hands a little bit,

“That’s how we scored, we crossed the ball for their second goal, they win a header in the box.

“Ben Watson picks it up and they go on the counter, and I speak about Lolley before the game.

“Make sure we’re always two v one with him, stop the cross, he crosses the ball, Ameobi gets free, too easily, too passive.

“And the ball’s in the back of the net, so you’re chasing the game.”