Warburton’s men were on Eze Street before switching off
MARK WARBURTON says his young QPR side need to learn to finish off opponents after they went from cruising to clinging on.
A goal by Ebere Eze and two for Nahki Wells had them out of sight after 30 minutes but a calamitous error by Joe Lumley and a strike by James Collins early in the second half ensured a nervy end for the home side.
“We’ve got to be more ruthless in front of goal,” said Warburton, the QPR manager.
“We were very good for the first half and it could have been a lot more but we shot ourselves in the foot by giving them a glimmer of hope.
“We could have won by four or five on our first-half performance but it could also have ended 3-3.”
Eze fired QPR ahead from 30 yards after three minutes, the ball brushing through Simon Sluga’s fingertips and he went close again before Wells added a second in the 20th minute, running clear to score after Toni Leistner’s pass had caught the Luton defence flat-footed.
Moments later, a left-foot piledriver from Eze was touched on to the bar by Sluga as the home side threatened to run riot.
Then, Eze hit the crossbar again with a header from Ryan Manning’s cross.
But the third wasn’t long in coming as Wells played a one-two with Eze on the edge of the area before slotting the ball into the corner.
Luton were given a lifeline by Lumley when, under no pressure and with too much time on his hands, he passed the ball straight to Harry Cornick, who put it sraight in the back of the net in the 36th minute.
Luton then came out for the second half with some purpose and pulled another goal back within three minutes of the restart, Andrew Shinnie’s cross from the left being turned across goal by Cornick for Collins to tap in.
A leveller proved elusive though and boss Graeme Jones said: “Some days you win, some you learn.
“Some teams would have folded at 3-0, we didn’t. Nobody said the Championship was going to be easy.”