Town skipper Bradley knows feared Hatters top scorer Adebayo will be hurting following penalty miss but backs him to be ready for Forest clash

Town skipper Sonny Bradley knows that team-mate Elijah Adebayo will be hurting following his penalty miss against Huddersfield on Monday night, but backed the club’s leading marksman to swiftly put it behind him.

The 24-year-old had a glorious opportunity to draw the Hatters level at the John Smith’s Stadium earlier in the week, stepping up to try and beat Terriers keeper Lee Nicholls from 12 yards.

However, he saw his shot graze the outside of the post on its way behind, which meant that rather than Town spending the final 20 minutes going in search of a winner, they were trying to restore parity and eventually conceded once more in the closing stages to Naby Sarr’s header.

Defender Kal Naismith was seen geeing up a disappointed Adebayo at the full time whistle, as were a number of his other team-mates, as speaking afterwards, Bradley said: “Elijah’s a brilliant character, he’s got a great attitude, but like myself and the rest of the team, he’ll be thinking about that for the next 24 hours which is natural and he won’t be able to avoid that.

“He’s a top striker who wants to score goals.

"I’ve just had a quiet word with him then and Kal Naismith’s said the same to him and the manager’s said it.

"He’s said ‘look, you’re one of the best strikers in the division, this is the Championship, it’s a tough division and you’ve proven this season that you’re a real, real handful.’

"There’s teams out there who we’re going to come up against who are in fear of Elijah and I know that first hand as I’ve spoken to players from other teams.

"So for Eljah it’s just, have 24 hours to think about it, look at it back and then get ready to go against Forest as he’ll be needed.”

Following an opening 45 minutes that was fairly low on excitement, the Terriers then took the lead on the hour mark courtesy of some poor defending from the visitors.

With Henri Lansbury the second player forced off injured after Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu was substituted in the first period, Jon Russell escaped the attentions of Robert Snodgrass from a throw and before replacement Dan Potts, just off the bench himself, could close him down, the midfielder lobbed James Shea for the opener.

Bradley knew it had the potential to be a vital strike, saying: “I think the first half was quite cagey, there’s not much in it, a little big edgy, but we kept the ball well, moved it well and a couple of half chances like them.

"We couldn’t find that first goal and then to put that work in, especially defensively and then to concede in the manner that we did, it’s a good finish, but we’ve switched off and it’s too easy.

"Then it’s 1-0 and it’s so important in the Championship, the first goal, it can decide games.

“I’ve not seen it again, I don’t think there’s been any names getting thrown about at the minute, but like any professional team, Alan Sheehan’s come in and worked wonders with the set-pieces.

"Since he’s come in we’ve been excellent, but unfortunately tonight its been those moments with switching off a little bit has cost us.

“We’ve tried to get back in the game, we’ve had the penalty after James Bree gets brought down, and unfortunately for Elijah he’s missed it this time.

"If we get that goal, we possibly go on with a bit of momentum and maybe win the game, but it wasn’t to be tonight.

"Then the goal at the end, we’ve got nobody marking arguably the biggest threat that they’ve got at the time, which for us, at Luton Town if we want to achieve our goals then we definitely have to be better than that."