Chelsea took an early two-goal lead but the Hatters fought back through Jordan Clark, and had further chances throughout the game. Tammy Abraham secured his hat-trick in the second half but Town can hold their heads high, as the gaffer insisted post-match.

“I’m proud of the group and how we went about our work, it shows we are in a decent place," said the Welshman. "We started not great, that was a lot to do with tactics, so I take blame for that in terms of I wanted us to be bold, on the front foot. I wanted us to win the ball back, I wanted us to have solutions so we can play.

“We didn’t quite implement that well enough, so we had to change. When we changed we were far more comfortable and that got us back in the game right before half-time. We had another chance on 60 minutes and look, we have competed here today.

"It has been a real, long, tough week as we said. Three away games on the trot, Bournemouth, Brentford and then Chelsea. They don’t get much harder than that as a Championship team and we have shown that we’ve grown as a team, grown as a club and it is a tough defeat to take, but we have to remember who we’re playing against – a top four Champions League side and we have come a long way.”