Luton Town manager Nathan Jones has labelled his team’s performance against Nottingham Forest as ‘outstanding’ after a 1-0 win at Kenilworth Road.
Kal Naismith’s first-half penalty was enough to separate the two sides in a tense affair in the race for the Championship play-offs. The defeat is Forest’s first in 11 Championship games as the Reds eye promotion at the end of the season.
The game also saw Luton reduced to 10-men in the second half. But Steve Cooper’s men were unable to make the most of the numerical advantage in the second half. Following the game, Luton boss Jones hailed his team’s performance, saying that his team matched Forest. “You’d be an absolute idiot if you didn’t describe that as a mammoth win,” he said, via LutonToday .
READ MORE: Nottingham Forest 'let down' by referee over Djed Spence decision
READ MORE: Nottingham Forest fans blast 'horrible' Luton Town after promotion setback
"Forest hadn’t lost in ten, they’d won the last five and they have been annihilating teams with pace and power. Then they came up against a side who could match them today.
“Tactically we had to be right. I felt, on the balance of play, it was a pretty even game, with two top teams.
"It was a magnificent performance, and first half I thought we were outstanding. We were always not going to be able to keep up that momentum, especially with the decimation of players we have, we weren’t able to bring real game-changers on, but what a performance.
“First half we were brilliant, I thought we were really, really good, we had to dig in, defend our box well and we did.”
Forest fans weren’t happy with the performance of the referee during the game, supporters venting their frustrations at the decision to award Luton a penalty . But Jones also pointed out decisions which he thought went against his side.
“Apart from two shots really, Sheasy (James Shea) made a good save, they hit the post, apart from that, I can't remember another chance,” he added.
“I felt we should’ve had a pen, it was definitely not a sending off and some decisions have gone against us, but we’ve shown real quality, desire and adaptability.”
