Kioso annoyed as Luton concede twice late on in cup defeat to Manchester United

Despite experiencing the elation of making his full Town debut against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup third round last night, it was a case of mixed emotions for defender Peter Kioso, who couldn't hide his frustrations at the manner of Luton's 3-0 defeat to the five-time winners.

The Hatters were more than holding their own for large swathes of the contest, until the final three minutes, when the meaty Red Devils subs bench showed it’s undoubted worth, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood both scoring late goals, to put an added gloss on Juan Mata's first half penalty.

Kioso said: “It is frustrating, everybody’s frustrated in there as we said, it wasn’t a 3-0 game.

"But the gaffer said it, that's what happens when you have the quality they had on the pitch.

"You give them too many chances, or maybe even one chance, they score, but there's so many positives the team can take.

“The penalty didn’t help at all, I thought the boys, first and second half we played excellent.

"It kind of hurt to know that we were conceding just before half time, it doesn’t really help, but it doesn’t really matter for me as I thought the boys put in a great shift and we played like a team.

"How we played, the performance, the hard work, we put in a great shift and we just push that on for Saturday.

"We’re still in great form and ready for Saturday.”

Although Luton made nine changes for the contest, keeping just Sonny Bradley and Rhys Norrington-Davies from the 2-1 win over Derby County on Saturday, they didn't look in any way weakened against their top flight opponents.

Kioso continued: "Most people would have seen we’ve made so many changes in our team, they’re not quite sure of the result, but it just shows that the first team is as strong as the second team.

"At the end of the day we’re all a team, if I’m not playing, anyone’s not playing, we’re not there sulking, we’re working hard as everybody needs everybody.

"That's the best thing about the club, we’re here together, we’re a family, we all know that we all needed each and we all push each other.

"The gaffer always says in the changing room about how much he believes in us and what he knows we can do this season.

"When you have that type of belief as players, as a team, anything possible, so we just go out there and play with freedom."

On what he garnered from the experience of going up against the likes England international Jesse Lingard and Dutch winger Donny van de Beek to name just two, Kioso said: "I take away the team performance.

"People probably thought Luton Town, Man U, Man U’s probably just going to smash them, but it wasn’t like that.

"You look at the scoreline, it was 3-0, but if you watch the game, it wasn't a 3-0 game at all, it was a very, very tight game until the last minute.

"So that's the positive for me, the team performance and it shows that we’re in-form, the team is in form and we’re trying to keep pushing on."

Luton might have made it an altogether different last five minutes had Tom Lockyer's header found the corner of the net and not been tipped away by United keeper Dean Henderson, his rebound kicked off the line too.

Kioso added: "On another day that goes in the back of the net and everything changes.

"Even though we're playing against Manchester United, they concede that goal and I feel like they know they’re under pressure and more mistakes will come.

"But unfortunately it didn’t end up in the back of net and the game ended the way it ended.

"But still for me, it doesn’t take away from the performance by the boys."