Lead coach Joe Deeney gave a brutally honest review of his side’s performance following Towns disappointing 4-1 outing at The Hive against Barnet

Speaking after the game in which a solitary Hatters goal, courtesy of Josiah Akinfenwa, could only ease the sting of defeat, Deeney said: “If you really look at it, if they continue to serve that up then they won’t have a career at any level of the game. I have seen things today that you wouldn’t see at Step 6 or Step 7, without meaning any disrespect to those levels.

“Football isn’t that difficult when it comes to certain things you have to do. I am so flat, in 20 years of doing this to see one of my teams get beat up, bullied and lose duels, lose tackles and not mark and not stop crosses it simply isn’t good enough.”

While there were elements of the game that perhaps favoured the home side, the coach was determined to not let any excuses spare his players following the defeat in Edgware.

“Forget the excuses, the fact they are older and stronger than us, it isn’t good enough to not compete. We work on shape and structure and defending our box, I have watched the goals back and they are shambolic. It’s a performance that will get managers fired,” The coach stated candidly.

“We have got a cup final to play and off the back of that kind of performance, the starting eleven may be very different. It’s easy to make excuses but we were woeful today. We were punished far too often for not getting anywhere near enough to some of their attacks today, I hope they are hurting today as much as myself, as much as Ronnie and Benno.”

The Hatters are next in action away to Sutton United, looking to avoid a third consecutive defeat on the road.