Goalkeeper James Shea is still being assessed after his injury at Cardiff on Saturday, but understudy Harry Isted is available to play against Blackpool on Saturday – a move which will not affect Luton’s ability to signing an emergency loan, if needed.
There had been some suggestion that, after playing four times for the first-team, fielding Isted against Blackpool would take him to five appearances. That’s the number which would class him as a senior player and which would rule out the Hatters’ ability to bring in an emergency loan, as they did after Aston Villa loanee Jed Steer was injured against Chelsea.
In the EFL, senior appearances are only officially counted for starts in the league, FA Cup and Carabao Cup – so, technically, Isted has made zero appearances for Luton.
That’s because he had two outings in the Football League Trophy before coming off the bench to make his debuts in both the FA Cup against Chelsea and the Championship against Cardiff at the weekend.
So, while the club has not ruled out the possibility of Shea being fit for the weekend, they are confident in Isted’s ability and comfortable in knowing that a start against Blackpool would officially be the 23-year-old’s first appearance.
Manager Nathan Jones said: “James picked up an injury the other day so we’re assessing that day to day really. It’s a big call because it’s a goalkeeper but we have faith in him in terms of everything.
“It was unfortunate we had to make a change, Harry came on and did fantastically well again, so we’re just monitoring James. He didn’t train today with us, he didn’t train today as precaution because we didn’t want to push anything, but tomorrow is another day.
“If we need to go with Harry then we are purely comfortable with that because he is so engrained in the group. Last three games of the season we’re in a wonderful position, we would like to have a full strength squad but we haven’t, but we’re finding ways to win games and that’s what we have to keep doing.”
Isted equipped himself well against Cardiff helping to earn a clean sheet in the league, and the club’s 18th of the campaign, but Jones wasn’t surprised.
“I don’t think anyone has acquitted themselves better than we think they can, because if we didn’t think they could do that, they wouldn’t be in the team,” said Jones.
“Now we’ve kept 18 clean sheets this year, we’ve got a fantastic defensive record, our goal difference is plus 14, plus 15, so we’ve showed that we’re a decent side, we score goals, we keep clean sheets, we work hard, we know that everyone’s played their part in that and Harry’s been excellent.
“He had far more to do in the Chelsea game than he had to do in the Cardiff game, so if we need Harry to play games for us, we’re very, very confident he can do it, because otherwise he wouldn’t be here and we’ve never had a problem putting him in.
“Yes, you’ve got to cover yourself in certain scenarios, but Harry’s excellent day in, day out and he’s got the real respect of the lads which is the main thing. So, if we have to put Harry in, 100 per cent confident and that’s not bravado, that’s true, because if we really need to take a loan then we’d be desperately scrambling to take a loan, that isn’t the thing.”
Luton have been ravaged by injuries in recent weeks, but after back-to-back 1-0 wins over Easter they have a play-off place firmly in their hands with three games remaining.
Asked about his walking wounded, Jones said: “They are closer to being back. People like Jordan Clark and Luke Berry are closer and we have missed those two, we really have. People like Gabe Ossho will be out, he’s not available and Pelly won’t be available for the weekend so it’s a tough one.”
I will immediately seize your rss feed as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please permit me recognise in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.