Clark insists Chelsea display will give Luton players real belief for the rest of the Championship season

Midfielder Jordan Clark insists that Luton’s performance during their FA Cup exit at Chelsea on Sunday will give the Hatters renewed belief for the rest of the Championship campaign.

Although the Hatters ultimately went out 3-1 on the day, they were well in the game until the 75th minute when Tammy Abraham finished off a wonderful team move to complete his hat-trick.

With Luton next in action at Blackburn Rovers this weekend, Clark said: “We’ve gone toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the world.

“We’ve been lacking a bit of belief in the last few games, especially in the league, so that should be a real confidence booster back to the bread and butter of the league next week.

“Hopefully we can take confidence from this and kick on as much as we can in the league for the rest of the season now as we want to finish as high as possible.

“We want to get in and around the play-offs, there’s a lot of football to be played now, so we’ll be working hard especially on the training field and I’m just looking forward to next week now.”

Town had looked like they were going to be blown away in the early stages, trailing 2-0 to Abraham’s quickfire double inside 18 minutes.

However, they fought back into the contest thanks to Clark’s third goal of the season as he admitted it was hard not holding their illustrious opponents in a high regard, adding: “You go into the game trying not to give them respect, but you just have to as you know they’re top players.

“You know they’re going to be sharp, they’re going to be quick, going to be stronger, we’ve just got to try and play our game and trust what we do on the training pitch, which we did.

“We know they’re going to get chances, they’re world class players.

“It was trying to contain them a little bit and then play our game, implement our strategy when we got on the ball, which I thought we did.

“When we got back to 2-1, we created some chances, cut them open a little bit, but they’re going to get chances, they’re a good side.

“It was just disappointing to lose the third goal and then a couple of chances we had in the second half that we didn’t take, but it’s football, we’ll learn from it.

“These are the games you want to play in when you’re growing up, you want to strive for the best and play against the best, that’s what we’re in football for.

"You’ve just got to relish it and go to toe-to-toe with them, get in their faces early, put a few tackles in.

"We're pleased with the performance and I'm proud of the boys but losing’s losing and it hurts no matter who you play against."

Town did have their moments, particularly when Dan Potts and Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu to set up a marvellous shooting opportunity for Harry Cornick on the hour mark, but the attacker couldn't beat Kepa, the Blues keeper saving well.

Clark said: "He said it all week he’s a Chelsea fan and I bet his eyes lit up as soon as got through one-on-one.

"Harry’s a good finisher, we know he’s a good finisher, he can’t do any more, he’s made the keeper work, made him make a save, which is all you ask for.

"He’s unlucky and I'm gutted for him and the rest of the lads as that would have made it 2-2 and who knows what would have happened after that?

"But we created more chances, we can’t just think about that one, its a positive performance so we'll take it into our next game definitely."

The former Accrington player recently agreed a new contract to remain at Kenilworth Road for the foreseeable future, despite only joining in the summer.

On why Luton opted to extend Clark's deal, boss Nathan Jones added: "Anyone we are exposed on, we do.

"We brought Jordan in on an initial contract and he had certain things in his contract, length and so on that we just took out as we just said that 'we see you being here.'

"He came in at a time and I thanked the board for it.

"We had probably no scope to sign another player but the board, we felt that he was important, we felt that when he became available, we wanted him because we had been monitoring him for a while.

"We had to offer him a contract that mirrored that and that was unfair on him really.

"So what we’ve done and we have thanked the club for it, we’ve just taken his incentives out and given it to him because he has earned that and he has been fantastic since he’s come in."