Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Luton Town
by Dan Nolan
at Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium

LUTON manager Nathan Jones acknowledged a clear lack of clinical finishing in his side’s 2-0 defeat at QPR last night, but said his defence must also shoulder the blame for letting the hosts off too easily.

The Hatters had the lion’s share of shots and attacking initiative on the night, but an early goal from Chris Willock – latching on to Ilias Chair’s clearance from a corner and dinking it over keeper Simon Sluga – followed by a simple header for Charlie Austin on 55 minutes ensured that QPR could see off the final stages in relative comfort.

“We gifted them the first goal,” Jones admitted.

“We’ve got to defend better on two occasions, and show far more composure on probably about 18 occasions.

“With 16 [shots], only three on target … we’ve had better chances, we’ve had more chances, more crosses — we just didn’t show composure, and that’s cost us the game.”

Crediting QPR as “one of the most fluent sides in the league,” Jones nevertheless felt his side restricted them to “little bits of play in midfield, without hurting us.”

“I felt we could have hurt them tonight,” he continued. “If we’d taken one or two chances then I think it would have been a different thing — they’d have come out and had to be more open.

“But we just didn’t take the chances … we didn’t show enough quality.”

After a second successive match without a goal, Jones acknowledged that his side’s inability to capitalise on key attacking moments was a fair but “simplistic” explanation for a recent slump in form.

“We haven’t kept a clean sheet for three, four, five now,” he said — the last coming five games ago, in the 1-0 win against Hull in October.

“So that’s something that needs to be addressed as well, because if you don’t concede, then you ask QPR to do a lot more,” Jones said.

“From 70 minutes on, at times the game’s a farce — they’re content at 2-0, they’re not going to speed anything up … so when teams get in front, that’s what happens.”