Graeme Jones once again saw his Luton Town side put in a lacklustre performance this weekend as the Hatters succumbed to a 3-0 defeat away to a resurgent Reading side. 

The result means that the Bedfordshire based side have now lost four Championship games in a row, thus seeing them slip closer towards the relegation zone.

Despite dominating possession for long periods of the contest, the Hatters were unable to create any real clear cut goal scoring chances of note, registering just one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.

Goals from Michael Morrison, Ovie Ejaria and Garath McCleary ultimately settled the contest, with Reading rarely breaking stride in what was a relatively straightforward win for the Royals.

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Jones will surely be left asking questions of his side, who despite keeping the ball well for long periods, failed to really work Reading keeper Rafael Cabral.

Here, we take a look at THREE things we clearly learnt about Luton in their weekend defeat to Reading...

Lack of creativity 

The Hatters clearly suffered in a creative sense at the Madejski Stadium, with playmaker Izzy Brown missing the game due to an injury that he picked up during their last Championship outing against Nottingham Forest, and the Kenilworth Road outfit failed to find their usual attacking rhythm.

Neither Callum McManaman nor Collins and Cornick were able to muster any real attacking openings of note, meaning that Luton were for once found to be largely toothless in attack, perhaps meaning that Jones will potentially explore the option of bringing in another creative midfielder in January.

Dropped too deep when out of possession 

When out of possession of the ball, Luton's defence were found to have dropped too deep for periods of the contest, with the back three becoming a back five for much of the contest, thus allowing Reading to have time and space to take shots on from distance on the edge of the Luton penalty area, including Ejaria's well-struck goal.

This problem could have been alleviated if the Luton backline had stepped up quicker, as this would have compressed the space left between the midfield and defensive lines, which Reading continually exploited throughout the 90 minutes.

Zonal marking didn't pay off

As was seen when Reading scored their first goal of the afternoon, Luton's zonal marking system that was employed to defend against the opposition's corner deliveries failed to work, with Morrison allowed time and space to get a run in between two defenders to head past James Shea.

In addition to Morrison's run, the Hatters also failed to pick up the movements of several of the Royals' attackers, underlining the distinct lack of organisation from the Town backline, which perhaps suggests that a man-marking system would be more beneficial for the team in the long run.