Luton boss Graeme Jones believes Nottingham Forest’s approach at Kenilworth Road is a mark of how far his side have come following their return to the Championship.
The Reds ended a two-game losing run with a 2-1 victory in Bedfordshire, courtesy of goals from Lewis Grabban and Sammy Ameobi either side of half-time.
Despite dominating the possession stats, it took Luton until the 87th minute for them to breach Brice Samba, with Callum McManaman firing in a fine effort, and Jones admitted his frustration at the way his side performed.
“I could hide behind 70 percent possession, two offside goals. I am not going to, I was disappointed with the performance for the first time, really, really disappointed,” he said.
“The performance wasn’t good enough, a totally different challenge to the one we have had here previously in the Championship.
“We had Nottingham Forest and we need to mark how far we have come sometimes, former two-time European Cup winners, sitting in and playing on the counter-attack at Luton and I think we struggled for craft and creativity.”
The Hatters, who had a third straight defeat inflicted upon them by resurgent Forest, lost key man Izzy Brown – on loan from Chelsea, to injury in the first half and Jones felt that was a key moment in the contest, played out in front of a sell-out crowd.
“To break them down and that’s the true assessment of today. Losing Izzy Brown so early doesn’t help, we tried everything and it wasn’t enough,” he said.
“His delivery from set-plays has been vital, Izzy is our most creative player. He has to play if we’re going to stay in the league. He has to play, it’s as simple as that. I hope not [that it’s a long-term problem].
“It’s a problem with his hamstring. He has had huge demands, everyone talks about changing teams last week because of the three games in a week – I didn’t change him because he is so important and then you get this and you wonder why.
“When you play three times in a week, it’s about being able to repeat that physical level and then recover and go again.
“He’s in that period where he hasn’t played football for two years, he has now played a lot of games and it maybe caught up with him.”
