His goal in the 36th minute came two minutes after Lyle Taylor had opened the scoring, but two second half goals from the hosts condemned Town to a first defeat in three matches.

Reflecting on the events at The Valley, Cornick said: “The boys are gutted. I thought we really gave our all today. We had chances maybe at 1-1 to go into the lead and take the game to them, but we’ve been punished and it’s just unfortunate.

“We feel a little bit unlucky but that is the way it goes sometimes in the Championship and we’ve got to dust ourselves down and go onto Tuesday night because that is a massive game.”

Elaborating on the team’s performance, the forward continued: “I think as a team we are getting better but it’s coming to the end of the season now and we need to improve quicker because we haven’t got many games left to get the points we need to stay up. That is the main thing. We need to go onto Tuesday night and get three points at home.”

Despite already equalling his goal tally from last season, the former Bournemouth man was keen to turn attention to future games, insisting that Kenilworth Road in particular will play a massive part in Town’s bid for survival.

“With the run-in that we’ve got, we need to make Kenilworth Road a fortress,” Cornick expressed. “We really need the fans to get behind us at home and spur us on because if we can win our home games then I think we can stay up.”

With over 2,700 Hatters packed into the Valley at the weekend, the 24-year-old continued to praise their impact, adding: “The fans have been brilliant this season to be fair to them. They travel in their numbers and they’ve been really good.

“I think I saw something the other day as well about Kenilworth Road being 98 per cent full, which is the most in the Championship.

“The fans have always been brilliant, we need them to keep going really, keep coming to the away games and keep making Kenilworth Road a fortress.”