Jones feels heavy Blues defeat will be a 'learning curve' for his inexperienced Hatters

Luton boss Nathan Jones believes that Saturday’s 5-0 thumping at the hands of Birmingham City will serve as a real ‘wake-up’ call for his inexperienced side.

The Hatters had gone into the contest with high hopes following a dogged 1-0 midweek success at Barnsley that had seen them make it six points out of nine.

However, they were quickly on the back foot, conceding in the seventh minute to Marc Roberts’ header from a corner.

Scott Hogan then put visitors further ahead, before adding his second just moments after half time, two late goals from Gary Gardner and Chuks Aneke rubbing salt into the wounds.

Jones said: “The first and the third, it’s pretty much the same as last week (against West Bromwich Albion).

“You don’t want a team to settle, they’ve lost in midweek, we wanted to start well, get out of the blocks, get the first goal, we did that in midweek (against Barnsley) and never looked back.

“Today was totally different, you have to mark and do your jobs and that’s the learning curve, a learning curve for young players, and we have got young players.

“We have not got the experience they’ve got, they’re much more experienced than us right throughout, so we’re going to have days where we have tough times against experienced sides with knowhow, know how to win games.

“We are learning that, we’re going a different route, but we have to learn that, and then some will.

“We’ve got Elijah (Adebayo), compare him to Lukas Jutkiewiecz for example, he’s been playing in the Championship for 10 years, been doing it well, scoring goals, dominating.

“Elijah will get there, but he’s learning that, so we’re at a different end of the spectrum to someone like that.

“We have not got the budget to go out and get something like that, so we have to accept the fact that this where we are, but also, other people have to accept it, to understand as well that we’ll get there, it’s just a process, but our process is different from someone else.”

After falling 2-0 down just after the midway point of the first half, Jones opted to take young defender Peter Kioso off on only his second Championship start, introducing Glen Rea on to try and shore up the midfield.

The boss continued: “Peter’s come in and been aggressive in midweek and again it’s a learning curve for Pete.

“When you look at our three (defenders), they’re probably way more experienced than we were.

“But they were better than us today in all the ugly side of stuff, and all the basics, they did it better than us.

“When you get in the lead you can afford to have your passes, but that comes from confidence and being three up as at no point are you losing a game from three up in the Championship.”