Luton Town Manager Nathan Jones to be ‘ruthless’ in reaction to Barnsley defeat
By Dan Briard
Manager Nathan Jones insists he will be ‘ruthless’ from now until the end of the season after seeing his team fall to defeat against Barnsley on Easter Monday.
The in-form Daryl Dike scored in both halves and missed a penalty for the Tykes, before James Collins pulled a goal back for the Hatters with eight minutes to play, though an equaliser proved elusive in the end.
It marked back-to-back defeats following the two-week international break for Luton and the manager is keen to see more from his players in the remaining seven matches.
“When I came in last year, it was categorically different and they had a real desire to defend, work hard and put their bodies on the line. We have had two games since we reached 50 points where we haven’t done that, and we have been powder-puff both games.”
Alike Luton, Barnsley stayed up on the last day of last season and have since defined the odds as they continue to strive towards promotion into the Premier League, which doesn’t surprise Jones – who said: “Barnsley are brutal and credit to them because they’re getting results and there are no complaints whatsoever from that. We were sloppy against Derby in the things that we did, not many chances were created and there wasn’t a real seriousness about us. I want us to evolve into a better team and we were using these last nine games to do that and see if we could do certain things.
“But now, I’m going back to basics, I’m going to make sure we finish the season with points because I don’t want to lose games by trying people, seeing if people are good enough.
“One or two of them haven’t done themselves any favours. From now until the end of the season, I am going to see who wants to be here, who wants to play for this football club, who can play for this football club and who can take us forward. I’ll be ruthless with the ones who can’t.”