Jones left frustrated as his Luton side were 'derailed' by double injury blow against Bluebirds

Luton boss Nathan Jones was left frustrated that injuries to Tom Lockyer and Matty Pearson derailed his side’s victory bid against Cardiff City this evening.

With Town starting to get on top in the first period, Lockyer had to go off on the half hour, after suffering an ankle injury following a block tackle, replaced by Martin Cranie, with Glen Rea dropping back into the centre of defence from his holding midfield position.

At half time, Pearson then didn’t reappear, with Luke Berry on in his place, as Town moved from a five-man defence to a flat back four, and swiftly conceded twice to Harry Wilson’s wonderful curler on 53 minute, and Will Vaulks strike three minutes later.

Jones, who had given starts to Danny Hylton and Kal Naismith in a bid to pep up Town’s aerial power against an imposing Bluebirds side, that contained Kieffer Moore, Aden Flint and Sean Morrison, said: “Tom opened his ankle up, so we'll have to wait and see how he is in the coming days, but that’s the issue

“Hamstring (for Pearson), I wouldn't be making tactical changes and taking centre halves off, not against these.

"Matty was doing very, very well just a tight hamstring that curtailed him.

“We went with physical threat, to go up against them, we needed men out there today and there was absolutely no problem until we had to make the changes and we got derailed with the two centre halves having to go off.

"This is not a team you can get away with, normally we should have put Jordan Clark on at right back but today wasn't the day for that.

“I’m disappointed, I thought first half we were very good, we matched them all over, had the best chance with Collo (James Collins), then we had to reshuffle completely.

"That derailed us a little bit, as pulling Glen (Rea) out of the centre of the park was a big thing because as he gives us that discipline and arguably their most talented player (Wilson) is in there.

"Our three midfield players vacated the area for that, they were able to have knock down without anyone around him and then he scores from 25 yards, so I'm disappointed with the first goal.”

Cardiff’s second was equally as galling for Jones as a corner was cleared by Dan Potts, only for Vaulks to be left completely unmarked inside the area to volley past Simon Sluga via a slight deflection.

Jones added: "I’m really disappointed because we switched off, we didn't do the basics right.

"We wanted to make sure we were right at it and we were for pretty much 50 minutes, but when you switch off and a side that’s in good form and has good players then that’s what happens.

“They’re massive, they’re a massive side, but we handled that really well and we’ve got one on the edge of the box (for the second goal), as you have to have an overload in the box,.

"We didn’t deal with that well enough and I was really disappointed with the first goal as I felt there was a foul and should have been two free kicks in the build up.

"Kieffer Moore goes over so easily, and it looks like simulation, but apparently that’s not simulation anymore, and then we felt Danny got pulled back there and then they hit the diagonal knock down and score.

"So we’re disappointed, but we need to be better, we need to be more clinical when we have chances and a real disappointment that we had to reshuffle and got derailed.”