Jones joy as slick Hatters avenge whooping Hoops
NATHAN JONES gained revenge on QPR’S over-celebrating stars as Luton earned a first league win over the West Londoners in 16 years.
The Hatters boss was furious with Rangers’ antics following victory in March and used them as motivation for this triumph that stopped Mick Beale’s off-colour side going top of the Championship.
Elijah Adebayo, a Jimmy Dunne own goal and a Luke Freeman effort gave Luton a deserved win – one that passionate Jones enjoyed by repeatedly punching the air at the finish.
The Welshman said: “We’ve let QPR off the hook in recent years. They over-celebrated here and we used that.
“They had Jimmy Dunne doing the conga on the touchline and Stefan Johansen whooping around like he was on Wheel of Fortune.
“That galvanised us. We don’t want that on our patch and we used it before the match.
“It was a wonderful, wonderful performance.”
QPR had won their last three games but looked well off it and had no answer to Luton’s aggressive style.
The Hatters were deservedly ahead as the excellent Carlton Morris’ 18th-minute cross was headed in by Adebayo.
The hosts should have been further ahead before the break with Jake Clarke-salter denying Sonny Bradley on the line.
Then Adebayo agonisingly headed against the inside of the post from James Bree’s cross.
QPR were slightly better after the break with Clarke-salter powering an effort against the bar.
But it was game over in a real calamity situation 13 minutes from the end.
Sub Cameron Jerome intercepted Tim Iroegbunam’s pass with Seny Dieng’s attempt at a clearance hitting Dunne and going in for the most embarrassing of own goals.
To make matters worse, Dunne went off injured.
The Hoops at least pulled one back as Rob Dickie’s header hit the bar from Andre Dozzell’s cross and went in off keeper Ethan Horvath in injury time.
But Luton rounded off the win further into stoppage time as Harry Cornick charged down the right and set up Freeman to tap home. Beale refused to get too down in the dumps after a rare poor performance.
He said: “I need to keep this clean as this was a really bad day.
“A few of our lads were not feeling too good either.
“We didn’t get to grips with Carlton Morris. Their two centre-forwards gave my lads issues.
“I won’t bash my players, I will just look for a response. We weren’t great. It was one of those days – we were miles off.
“We’re hopeful it’s just a contact injury with Jimmy.
“He’s just in pain at the moment. He has been outstanding for us.”
LUTON: Horvath 6; Lockyer 7, Bradley 7, Potts 6; Bree 7, Campbell 8, Lansbury 7 (Freeman (67) 7), Clark 7, Bell 7; Morris 8 (Cornick (67) 7), Adebayo 8 (Jerome (67) 7)
QPR: Dieng 6; Balogun 5 (Kakay (14) 7), Dunne 4 (Dozzell (79) 5), Clarke-salter 6, Paal 6; Iroegbunam 6, Field 6 (Dickie (62) 5), Amos 6 (Johansen (62) 6); Roberts 7 (Richards (79) 5), Dykes 5, Chair 6
STAR MAN: Allan Campbell – Luton were dominant in midfield and the Scot played a major part.
REF: Tony Harrington 7