The Town could not revive their fortunes on the road as they suffered a fifth away defeat on the spin at league leaders Cardiff.
Back-to-back home wins had pushed the Hatters to within four points off the play-off places but any hope of ending their poor run on their travels was effectively over at half-time as promotion-chasing Cardiff eased into a two-goal lead.
The Bluebirds, relegated with the Town last term, were almost a goal up inside six minutes only for Josh Keeley to stop a Joel Bagan’s thunderbolt from 30 yards.
But the Hatters’ goal was living a charmed life in the opening stages and on 11 minutes the hosts took the lead. Joel Colwill held off three Town defenders before squaring for David Turnbull and the midfielder swept home a fine first-time finish into the bottom corner.
However, after falling behind the Hatters’ response was good and within nine minutes, they were level. Devante Cole’s wonderful pass in behind the Cardiff defence sent Isaiah Jones clear on goal and after the winger was upended in the box by Bagan the referee pointed to the spot. Skipper Jordan Clark stepped up to convert his ninth goal of the season from 12 yards.
Level, the Town almost found themselves behind again on 24 minutes with Keeley again coming to the rescue with a brave block and then parrying a drive from Calum Chambers.
But as half-time approached the Hatters chances of ending their run without a win away from Kenilworth Road came crumbling down as Cardiff scored twice in the space of six minutes.
Firstly Colwill robbed Kasey Palmer of the ball to stride through and slot past Keeley and then, three minutes before the break, Perry Ng unleashed an unstoppable effort from the edge of the box into the top corner giving Keeley no chance.
It could have been worse for the Town in the dying embers of the first half with former Hatter Gabe Osho’s header hitting the crossbar and Ollie Tanner’s deflected effort scuttling inches wide.
Two goals behind at the interval, the Town made a change at the start of the second half with Ali Al-Hamadi replacing Gideon Kodua in attack.
The Hatters were much brighter in the second period. Cole was denied a free header from close range after a defensive header from Ng on the hour while Nathan Trott, the Cardiff goalkeeper, denied Al-Hamadi with six minutes to play.
Cardiff had the final chance deep into injury time when Keeley produced a superb stop to keep out Callum Robinson’s close-range effort – but that was that.
The Town have no time to dwell on the disappointment as they’re on the road at Wigan on Wednesday.
We’ll see you then.
Town: Keeley, Lonwijk, Johnson (sub Morris 66), Andersen, Mengi, Palmer, Clark, Richards (sub van den Berg 73), Jones, Kodua (sub Al-Hamadi 46), Cole (sub Wells 66).
Subs not used: Shea, Naismith, Saville.
Attendance: 19,524, including 830 backing the Town.
