Luton Town manager wary of Swansea City’s controversial penalty record ahead of Sky Sports clash
By Dec O'Reilly
Luton Town manager Nathan Jones has confirmed that Swansea City’s recent run of penalties has been identified ahead of Saturday’s Championship clash.
The Swans currently sit third in the Championship table and have won four penalties in their last four games, which has been looked at by Jones.
“I was at the [Swansea] game at Blackburn on Tuesday night”, said Jones. “My immediate reaction, which has been backed up, was it probably wasn’t a penalty.”
“I haven’t seen the Middlesbrough one, but I’ve been told that it was extremely harsh as well.”
Image Credit: Stuart Hammonds / Luton Town FC
Recent refereeing decisions in Swansea City’s games have caused social media to erupt, with the Swans’ late penalty at Stoke City and Middlesbrough’s disallowed late equaliser last Saturday amassing over 500,000 views on Twitter.
Jones did confirm that it is difficult to plan not to give a penalty away and that he hopes his players and the officials make the right decisions on Saturday.
“They [Swansea] are a forward thinking side that can create chances, but I hope we are not speaking about Swansea getting any kind of penalty [after the game], let alone a harsh one.”
Welshman Jones believes there is Premier League quality in the Swansea side: “They have got some excellent players, they have a Premier League striker in [Andre] Ayew, Jamal Lowe is doing very well and they have got a player from the Premier League in Conor Hourihane.”
“They are well organised, but they are a decent footballing side who have got real threats.”
Luton Town have had a week off after their midweek fixture against Rotherham United was postponed, which Jones describes as a week “they have used well” in preparation for Saturday.
The Hatters lost their previous fixture at leaders Norwich City after Jones admitted the Rotherham fixture was taken into consideration and was postponed after preparations were complete.
Jones has adapted his approach this time, stating “we’ll be picking the team to win [the next] three games” which was a benefit of the seven-day break.
“We take Swansea first and then, once we play Swansea, we’ll deal with Coventry”, added Jones.
