Rapid Crawley start fails to surprise Carden

The on-loan Cambridge United midfielder said: “The first 15 minutes we froze and Crawley tend to start like a house on fire in all their games.

“A lot of games they’ve scored early on and their game plan is to press up the pitch and they do it well and that’s why they’ve won so many games.

“We never looked at the board properly or did the jobs we were given and got punished for it.”

But he was unsurprised by the quality the Hatters showed to come back and hold champions Crawley.

Carden continued: “Luton Town will always be able to compete with the best, certainly in this league, and I think this squad can compete in the one above.

“When Richard Money was the manager he said you have to concentrate on ourselves and now Gary Brabin is the manager he is saying the same thing.”

And Carden felt that if the first half had been able to go on a little longer Town may have been able to get a second goal and put themselves in the driving seat.

The 32-year-old midfielder said: “We were a bit jittery for 10 or 15 minutes and then controlled the game.

“It was a great goal by Alex (Lawless) and going into half time they wanted it to come and we wanted to carry on.

“We sort of went 4-3-3 as we know that’s what they like to do.

“After the first 15 minutes it went well.

“I thought we hurt them a number of times.”