Luton Town manager Nathan Jones believes that his League Two leaders “gave a wonderful account” of themselves on Tyneside and, with a little bit more quality, could have “punished” Newcastle United.
Rafa Benitez’s Magpies advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup after defeating the fourth-tier side 3-1 at St James’ Park thanks to a brace from Ayoze Perez and Jonjo Shelvey’s first goal of the season.
But, after falling 3-0 behind, the Hatters pulled a goal back through Danny Hylton, who also saw a second harshly ruled out for offside.
And Jones was certainly impressed by his League Two side during the second half.
“At times we were excellent in the second half, we looked an attacking threat,” Jones explained.
“We gave a wonderful account of ourselves. We had a right go at a Premier League side. We haven’t tried to nick a result, we had a good go.
“Maybe that’s naive but we played some great football and the fans were outstanding.”
Newcastle’s first goal did not arrive until the half-hour mark, and Jones lamented the nine-minute spell during which the Hatters conceded on three occasions.
Aside from that period, Jones believes Luton matched their Premier League opponents and unsettled the Magpies at times during the second half.
Jones added: “I’m very proud of the second-half performance, but the overall feeling I’ve got is disappointment really, because for 25, 26 minutes, we didn’t really have much of a problem.
“We were handling them, it was a really even game, they’re a good side and they moved the ball well. We defended very, very well and had some moments ourselves; with a little bit more quality we might have punished them.
“But when you make three errors and you go 3-0 down against a Premier League side as a League Two side, that’s some mountain to climb and it was.
“The first goal came absolutely out of nothing, no problem, big error and then we’re in possession and we give the ball away twice, bang they’re in and they score and then we give it away again, and that’s the margin when you come up against these big sides.
“If you give away the ball in dangerous areas, and we worked on that all week, as we know that’s what their strength is, a counter-attacking strength.
“They sit back in and then they punished us first half, and then it was about making sure that one, we got the next goal and two, we didn’t concede and then the floodgates opened.
“Second half, I thought we were much, much better, on the front foot, scored early, scored another goal that wasn’t offside, so that’s the big frustration, because at 3-2 who knows?
“There’s an overall tinge of disappointment, but I’m proud of how they went about their work as the gulf in class is there because it’s Premier League against League Two, but at times, you couldn’t really see that.”