Jones left disappointed by 'naive' Hatters display

The Hatters found themselves trailing 3-0 inside the opening half hour, with Ebere Eze and Nahki Wells (2) on target.

Although Town mounted a fightback to almost steal a point, Harry Cornick and James Collins scoring, Jones said: “I thought we were very naive with our start, their tempo in the one v one duels was stronger than ours and it’s the first time I’ve felt disappointed with the group.

“Then we made a few changes, made a change after 30 minutes at 3-0, we have to take the positives because I think any other group would have crumbled at that point.

“I don’t know what it was, maybe the third goal went in on 25 minutes, we get back to 3-2, made a few tactical changes, made a few personnel changes and took a few risks at the end and could quite easily have taken something from the game.

“It was a mountain to climb at 3-0 down, but sometimes you win and sometimes you learn and today I’m afraid it’s time to learn.”

When asked if he could put his finger on the Hatters’ shocking start to the game, Jones added: “I can’t give you the reason for that.

“I’ll have to look at the data, that will give me a better explanation, but it was out of character as the character of the boys is not that.

“I just thought we started a little bit sluggish, a little bit naive.

“I thought Queens Park Rangers are a very good side, I said that pre-match.

"I think they proved that for 30 minues, but again you show people no respect, as we did for the last 60 minutes and you can see what we can achieve.

“We won the second half 1-0, so it’s a learning curve.”