The hosts were 3-0 up before the half-hour mark,  before Harry Cornick got one back for the Town.

James Collins grabbed the visitors’ second just after the restart, but the Hatters were unable to find the all-important equaliser.

Jones said: “I thought we were very naïve with our start, I think their tempo in the one-v-one duels was stronger than ours, it’s the first time I have felt disappointed with the group. Then we made a few changes, we made a change at 30 minutes when it was 3-0, we have to take positives because I think any other group would have crumbled at that point.

“I don’t know what it was, the third goal went in on 25 minutes, we get it back to 3-2, we made a few tactical changes, we made a few personnel changes and we took a few risks at the end, but we could have quite easily have taken some thing from the game. it was a mountain to climb at 3-0 down – but sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn, today I am afraid it is time to learn.

“I can’t give you the reason for that [for the performance in the first 30 minutes]. I will have to look into the physical data and maybe it will give me a better explanation. But it was out of character, the character of the boys is not that. I just thought we started a little bit sluggish and a little bit naïve. I think Queens Park Rangers are a very good side, I said that pre-match, I think they proved that for 30 minutes. But again, you show people no respect, as we did for the last 60 minutes and you can see what we can achieve. We won the second half 1-0, but as I said, it’s a learning curve.”