The derby was the first contested since 2006, but Town couldn’t find a way to break through following Joao Pedro’s first-half strike.

Jones said: “To be honest it was probably one of the most lacklustre derbies you will ever see. I’m not sure anyone in the ground actually realised it was a derby. From our players, their players, their manager, their staff. Their staff were appealing for yellow cards on every single challenge and I’m not sure there was a tackle in the game.

“We lost every first header, second ball, we were nowhere near. I think if we had raised it, then we would have got something out of the game, but we couldn’t, we were just flat.

"The game changed on Collo’s chance and then they went up the other end, a minute later, and scored. That was the margins in the game but if I’m honest, without fans here, it just felt like a flat game, real flat game.

“Whatever changes we made, we never did. I felt we were flat today, I was asked in the press yesterday ‘Did we realise if it was more important than them', and I’m not sure anyone in the ground realised it. It felt like a pre-season game, there wasn’t a challenge in the game, there wasn’t anything really, we got in great positions but didn’t finish, we didn’t finish the action in any way and that’s disappointing for us. I didn’t think either side took grip of the game but they had one moment of quality and we couldn’t do that.”