“It was a difficult one today and our thoughts go out to the family of the person who passed away, and also to everyone at St Albans City Football Club,” said Jones.

“These things are tragic events and all our thoughts, especially from the first team but everyone at Luton Town, go out to those involved.

“We thank the groundsman and the people of Hitchin Town Football Club. They are good friends of Luton Town and we didn’t expect anything different from them.

“We were going to use it as a venue but it was a very difficult subject for St Albans so they volunteered to step in and we knew we would get a very competitive fixture here, and it was.

“We could have had an in-house training game but the psychological aspect of an in-house game and an opposition game is totally different, and we wanted to play against an opposition. It was a very good test.

“Hitchin were very competitive. I’d normally say I was disappointed with our first half performance, but a lot of credit has to go to Hitchin and how they went about their work – and that’s why I prefer to do a game like this rather than an in-house match.

“It was 60 minutes tonight for some players, and it will be reversed on the weekend. Then we get everyone up to speed so they are all up to an hour in game time, and then we’ve got just over two weeks for the prep then.”