McCormack felt Luton U18s displayed two of the three R's he demands when defeating the R's in FA Youth Cup

Luton U18s boss Alan McCormack felt his side demonstrated two of the three R’s that he demands from them in each and every game during last night’s victory against the R’s, Town beating QPR 3-1 in the FA Youth Cup.

Going up against a Category Two academy side for the second round running, following a 6-0 thrashing of Birmingham City in round three, the Hatters, currently a Category Three, triumphed on the night thanks to goals from Jake Burger, Oli Lynch and Zack Nelson.

McCormack, who has masterminded his team to the verge of the EFL Youth Alliance South East title, needing one win to be crowned champions, was thrilled to see that form carry on in the cup, Luton reaching the fifth round for the first time since 2016.

However, they were given a scare in the second period as the visitors having the better of possession and territory for large periods, with Town’s failure to make the most of their first half dominance the only thing lacking for the manager, who said: “We give every club that we play against, whether that’s a Category Three club, or a Category One club the respect they deserve.

"They’re human beings at the end of the day, trying to make a living in this game, earn professional contracts and coaches are trying to get better, so you give everybody the respect they deserve.

"But when you walk out on a football pitch you’ve got to be ruthless.

"There’s somebody waiting to take your shirt, somebody waiting to take your job, you've got to be ruthless and I use three R’s a lot on the boys.

"Every single game I ask for the three R’s, to be ruthless, relentless and resilient, tonight we had two of them.

"I don’t think we had the ruthless side of us, so a good learning curve for the boys on how to get that.

"A big scalp yes, potentially, people will look at it and think that, but we’re in incredible form this year and we’re a really good side.

"We came into this full of confidence and they’ve shown why they’re a very good side in the Cat Two programme, so I’m really pleased on that front.”

With Luton running amok in their league, recording 15 wins from 16 games, scoring 67 and conceding just eight, McCormack was especially proud of his youngsters for showing they can the defensive work, as they managed to overcome a Rangers team who had won 3-1 at Category One side Spurs in their previous round.

The visitors got off to the perfect start as well, Teddy Lawrence opening the scoring inside 60 seconds, but rather than let it affect them, Luton continued playing their way as it bore fruit, Burger and Lynch putting them 2-1 in front within 12 minutes.

Nelson then added a counter-attacking third late on in the second half, as McCormack continued: “First half, I’ve got to say I thought we played some really good stuff, we just weren’t ruthless in front of the goal.

"The keeper has made some good saves, but I thought we countered really well.

"We knew they have a trigger press, as soon as they lost possession, they jump and go, we know we if could break that, we’d have plenty of chances, which is what happened in the first half and I thought we looked like the only team that was going to score.

“Set-backs are set-backs in games, but it happened so early.

"A minute into the game, they score, you’ve got 89 minutes left on the clock to go and get an equaliser, and we got it really quickly after it, which is nice because it showed me that the mentality was focused on the game and it was focused on still on the job that we had to do.

“We spoke at half-time about a few little things to look out for, to try and get better.

"I thought we were a little bit weak in our 50-50s.

"Yes, we show teams respect, but I thought we showed them too much respect in the tackle tonight, and I want my teams to be possession based, but also aggressive in doing that, and that’s in possession and out of possession.

"To be aggressive and brave in the challenge or brave to get on the ball and we allowed them to win second balls too much.

“We wanted to change that, and then in the second half we found ourselves defending for the whole 45 minutes I think, so I’m really, really proud of the boys.

“To see something that we’re not probably used to doing – and I don’t mean that in an arrogant way – but we do try to dominate possession for 90 minutes, and we do try to keep hold of the ball, and we know there will be spells where we don’t have it.

“So to have 45 minutes where we had to be really, really resilient, be relentless in everything we do.

"In our shape and shifting across the pitch, and everything getting to the man quickly, stopping shots, blocking crosses, putting our bodies on the line, supporting players, everything that we look for as a Luton Town player off the ball, I thought they showed to every man.

“So the pride in the boys for that, to weather the storm for as long as they did and to do everything that they could off the ball, which they are probably not used to in the game programme that we have on Saturdays, I’m really proud of them for that.

"I’m really proud that the boys take on the out of possession information and it sinks in and stays and then we get the third goal and then we just knew we had to defend our box which is the main part of our philosophy, even out of possession, defend the cage and we did that excellently.”

With Town’s centre halves of Josh Vickers and Jack Bateson standing firm, along with fellow defenders Jacob Pinnington and Joe Johnson, Town were indebted to keeper Sam Bentley at times too.

He made one stunning save in the first half from Rayan Kolli’s close range blast, somehow deflecting it on to the, before another full length effort from the attacker late in the game prevented Rangers from a grandstand finish.

McCormack added: “The one in the first half was an incredible stop, to get the arm on it and get it up high enough to hit the crossbar, that’s a gamechanger.

"They could go 2-2 then and the game suddenly swings in the balance of them again, but that kept us in the game and when players make saves or tackles or blocks, the belief you get from it, the one per cent gains you get in your own game is massive.

"Sam Bentley is a major part of why we won tonight, his concentration levels were extremely high, a bit of his playing out from the back I’ll have to question, have a little word with him, but we tried to do what we want to do and how we wanted to play out and get through them and force the press.

"Maybe game management is another learning part for the boys, but he was superb considering he had that drop very early that nearly led to a goal.

"It shows his levels of concentration from not just the boys out on the pitch playing but also in goal.”