Nathan Jones hails ‘no fear’ Luton after holding Championship leaders Fulham

Luton boss Nathan Jones was eager to praise his side for showing “no fear” as they held Championship leaders Fulham to a 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road.

The Cottagers went ahead through Aleksander Mitrovic’s 22nd goal of the season, but the hosts gained their just rewards for a spirited second-half display as Elijah Adebayo’s diving header just after the hour proved enough for a point.

Jones said: “They have slightly more quality than us because they’re probably (on a) £100million a year budget, so they probably have a little bit more composure and a little bit more quality.

“If we had just a bit more of that, we would have won the game today. But to go up against, and they are the best side in the league, let’s be honest. They’re top of the league for a reason because they are the best side in the league.

“So for us to get toe-to-toe with them just shows the great place we’re in because we don’t sit back, we show respect but no fear and that’s what I’m proud of today.

“Their goal is offside and we should have had a penalty – it’s absolutely nailed on the video.

“I can understand why they haven’t given it as I might not want to give a pen against the league leaders at little old Kenilworth Road in that time.

“But it’s a pen, it’s an absolute pen, but that takes away from the level of performance we showed today.

“We were a bit passive in the first 15 minutes but then after that, I thought we were excellent.

“(We were) front-footed, pressed, worked hard, didn’t sit in, went after them and caused them real problems.

“I’m really proud of the group today as everything I ask them to do, they do – and that for a manager is utopia.”

Early on, Joe Bryan flashed an effort narrowly wide for the visitors before Fulham were ahead after 19 minutes.

Bryan’s deep free-kick met by the unmarked Tosin Adarabioyo and, when his header was cleared off the line by Sonny Bradley, top scorer Mitrovic was there to tap the ball home.

Admiral Muskwe came close to equalising for Luton as he shot into the side netting, while after the break, he sliced wide.

In an end-to-end second period, Harry Wilson blasted the ball over the crossbar and Neeskens Kebano curled a hopeful attempt straight at Luton goalkeeper James Shea.

However, the hosts did get the goal their efforts deserved after 62 minutes as James Bree’s free-kick was met by Adebayo to power his diving header beyond Marek Rodak for his 10th of the season.

The hosts almost won it in sensational fashion as Kal Naismith beat four players to find Bree, who drilled wide, while late on, Fred Onyedinma saw his penalty appeals turned down after he appeared to be caught by Bryan.

Cottagers boss Marco Silva said: “It was a tough game for us. It’s always tough to play here, we knew it would be. (They are a) physical team.

“We know the way they like to play, they do everything and after they fight for the first and second balls, they are strong in that moment.

“I think we controlled all the first half with the ball, the way we want to do, not creating many chances, not creating the chances we should create, but of course, we scored on a set-piece and after that, we controlled the game.

“Second half, it started a little bit in our way but then we started to lose many balls. We gave a chance to them and they started to believe and – in that one moment – we switched off and they scored from one set-piece.

“What we did after it was 1-1, we should have done before because we tried to get the second and we should have done that with the game 1-0, not at 1-1.

“We tried, we had some dangerous moments, we started to push them back, but unfortunately we didn’t score the second goal and we lost the points.”