Town are looking to bounce back from Tuesday's defeat
Town’s defeat to Portsmouth on Tuesday night was a fair result according to Nathan Jones, whose side travel to Exeter City this weekend for the second time this month.
The Hatters lost 3-1 at Kenilworth Road to Pompey, but Jones believes that there are a lot of plus points to take from the night, as he looks to build on the good run of form prior to the loss.
He said: "There were lots of positives. Obviously, the result wasn’t positive, but I felt the game was an excellent game and a real good advert, a real good tempo, played in the right way.
“I felt for long periods we played well, but we came up against another excellent side in the division, who were on the whole slightly better than us in both boxes. We needed a bit more cutting edge in the final third, they had a little bit more of that, a little bit more aggression in the final third, whereas we lacked that.”
Seven of the players that started against Pompey were 23 years of age and younger, with Jones happy to give his starlets game time to help them improve.
The Town boss said: “I felt the other day we had a freshness about us. They have got two very experienced midfield players, but we have got a lot of freshness, a lot of brightness in there, we have got a lot of talent.
“We have sacrificed that little bit of experience for talent and it hasn’t been a too bad decision so far. They are gaining more experience week by week, we are getting better, we are in a decent place at the moment.
“We will get stronger with the squad we have got and how we are. With the January window coming up, we will get stronger as a team, we are in a good place at the moment.
"Everyone loses. We are in decent recent form, we have just got to continue that and go on another run.
“I am very pleased with how we are, I was pleased with how we were the other night, we could have been a little more professional in terms of how we defended, from set plays but apart from that I thought it was a good game, credit to Portsmouth, because they played well.”
This weekend Jones’ side face Exeter City at St James Park, their second trip there in November, with their last visit yielding a place in the second round of the FA Cup after a 3-1 victory, as Danny Hylton netted a brace and Glen Rea scored his second of the season.
“For us it’s another league game, one we want to win. We want to back that FA Cup win up with another win. We want to go down there and try and win the game, that’s all we are concerned about,” Jones said. “We will be chomping. We've a fully fit squad to choose from so we are looking forward to it, we are very confident in what we do.”