Blues boss Karanka felt Luton's players 'wanted' the win more than his City side

Birmingham City boss Aitor Karanka conceded that Luton’s players wanted the win more than his side during Town's 1-0 triumph at St Andrew's on Saturday.

The former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest chief cut a frustrated figure in the dug-out as the hosts fell to an 11th successive home game without victory and their ninth defeat in that time, courtesy of Dan Potts’ 31st minute goal which separated the two sides.

While Luton climbed up to 13th and now sit a healthy nine points clear of the drop zone, the Blues are in serious trouble of going down this season, second bottom in the table, although only a point away from safety themselves.

Speaking about the game, Karanka, whose side are now on a five match winless run, said: “We needed three points and Luton were six points above us and the game showed they wanted to win more than us, so we have to analyse that.

“It is difficult to understand as I knew how important the three points were and the way we were on the pitch, we need to sit down and try to realise as I don’t understand.

“I don’t know why, but for sure, the Luton players wanted more than us to win the game.

“We know that Luton were good in the long balls and second balls, they took every single second ball which means that they had more effort than us.

"We showed them set-pieces, throw-ins, from one throw-in they scored one goal, every single corner they headed the ball, so that’s when I saw the effort.

“When one team wants to win every second ball, when a team wants to head every single ball and they did and we didn’t, it’s because they want it more than us.”

When asked whether his side had tried to use Birmingham’s brittle confidence to their advantage going into the fixture, Town chief Nathan Jones added: “They have a certain way of playing and we tried to take advantage of that in the way that we played, not that I felt they had a lack of confidence, because we went to Cardiff not long ago, who were on a horrific run, the manager on the brink of getting sacked and we end up losing 4-0.

"They put in a right performance for him and they scored from four set plays, so you're always wary of teams that aren't in good form as sooner or later they’re going to turn it round.

"Aitor is very experienced at this level, a very experienced coach and manager, so you always feel they’re always going to turn it around and you just don't want to be the team that they turn it around against.

"As when we went to Cardiff, out of absolutely nowhere, we lost 4-0 and sometimes that can happen, especially at this level.”