Luton travel to Queens Park Rangers today with manager Graeme Jones saying his men are refreshed by the international break.
Three wins on the spin – two in the Championship and one in the Carabao Cup – sent Town into the break on a high and they will look to extend the feelgood factor at Loftus Road.
James Collins, Luke Bolton and Simon Sluga were the only players who joined up with their countries, with Town’s top scorer having a dream goalscoring debut for the Republic of Ireland, while Bolton was instrumental in creating a late winner for England Under-20s.
Jones has spent much of his coaching career in the Premier League, Championship and with the Belgium national team during the the 2018 World Cup, so he’s very accustomed to international breaks, and he thinks that has benefitted the Hatters.
Jones, who was also able to give himself and his players a couple of days off, said: “We’ve had some really, really good work, seven sessions now. I’ve had lots of international breaks, so I think the truth is in the early years, we made some mistakes.
“It’s getting the balance right between giving people time off and them not de-training and I know we’ve got that balance right, as we’ve been through it for such a long time.
“I feel like we’re refreshed mentally and physically and I looking at the boys, I’m really pleased with the balance.
“We had a really intense period that we managed to come through, so I think it was a good reward for them having a little bit of time off. Not too much though as we’ve certainly worked this international break and I think we’ll get adaptation because of it.
“But the flip side is that if we could have kept playing, I would have. That would have been my choice as we were in a good moment but as I’ve said previously, we don’t make the fixtures, so it’s been interesting.”
Time off allowed Jones to reflect on a hectic start to life as Luton manager and ten weeks where he only had one day off.
He said: “I think you can measure things at that point, we know what we need to improve, what we need to be consistent with, what we need to stick with. I think these periods can be really, really good for different reasons, it’s just what you do with it.”
Jones said in after Town’s last victory, against Huddersfield, that it marked the moment his men broke a psychological barrier to fully assert themselves as a Championship side.
And while he’s pleased with Town’s first month of the season, even despite three straight defeats, he knows Luton must maintain their progress.
He said: “Even through the difficult times as we weren’t winning games, you have to have a level-headed assessment of what’s going on and I think between the staff, myself and the players, we did.
“We grew every game, to the point where we won the last three, but you know football, that means nothing. It’s what we do on Saturday, as you’re only as good as your next game, not your last game, so we need to be ready for Saturday.
“You can have a few days to reflect and think and then your attention quickly turns to the next one and that’s what we’ve been working towards in the next 10 days.”
