Hatters boss didn't think Mowbray meant any disrespect with his Luton comments

Luton chief Graeme Jones didn’t think that Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray meant any disrespect to his team with his comments in the aftermath of Town's 2-1 win at Ewood Park on Saturday.
Town boss Graeme JonesTown boss Graeme Jones
Town boss Graeme Jones

When speaking to the press once goals from James Collins and Matty Pearson had seen the visitors claim all three points, Mowbray, whose team are looking to mount a promotion push this term said: "Against a side who are newly promoted to this league, no disrespect to them, but if we want to be up there towards the top of this league then we need to beat teams like Luton Town."

When asked if he thought that had been harsh on the Hatters, Jones said: “I don’t think Tony meant it like that, I think he was talking about his own team’s aspirations.

“The problem is with us managers, it’s not paper football.

“Luton Town have just been promoted, they’ve come up and maybe he felt where they were with the back to back wins and a newly promoted League One club, that if they had any aspirations to get promoted out of this league, and I think that’s where he’s set his targets, they should win the game.

“But there’s an opponent, there’s a resistance, they’ve got a style and you have to deal with that.

“Tony’s not that type of guy and he was hurt after the game as he was disappointed.

"That's the worst thing you can do in football as expectations, it’s difficult to deal with.

“It’s probably how we felt after the Hull game, so I don’t think there was any disrespect there.

“If I got a comment of disrespect before the game, maybe we’d use it, but I know Tony well enough to know that he didn’t mean it that way, definitely just talking about his own standards.”