Bees make Hatters pay after Blackburn sting

JOSH DASILVA told Luton to blame Blackburn for their demolition job at Griffin Park. what we could do. We wanted to start fast and attack on the front foot but, even in the first half, I don’t think we were at our best.

“But because our reactions were so good and so quick, we won the ball back, and they found it hard to play with us.”

Only Southend have conceded more goals than Luton in the top four divisions, and some fans are calling for boss Graeme Jones’ head.

A first-half goal frenzy began after comical Hatters defending allowed Bryan Mbeumo to open the floodgates on six minutes.

Ollie Watkins and Mathias Jensen then helped the hosts to seize control with clinical strikes, and Dasilva cashed in with the first two goals of his treble to give the Bees an astonishing 5-0 lead at the break. Shell-shocked Jones brought on reinforcements for the second half, but they were more Keystone Cops than the cavalry.

And when one of them, Brendan Galloway, suffered a serious knee injury in the 69th minute it left Luton a man short having used all their subs. There was still time for Brentford to score two penalties through Said Benrahma and Dasilva for his hat-trick.

Dasilva said: “The first one I asked Said and he said, ‘No, I want to take it’, as he is the penalty taker.

“The second one, he knew he’d scored and I was on the hat-trick, so he just let me take it. So, credit to Said. I’ve not really taken a penalty before, but I felt confident.”

Hatters skipper Sonny Bradley apologised to the travelling fans afterwards, but urged them to back under-fire boss Jones.

He said: “The manager getting booed is really difficult for us to take as players. He gave us a game plan and tactically it felt good, so it’s disappointing.

“But we didn’t execute those tactics and we’ve ended up embarrassed. He’s the hardest working man at our club and he doesn’t deserve this.”

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