Nathan Jones says he understands fans’ desire to see new signings Tom Ince and Elijah Adebayo help the Hatters’ goalscoring troubles, but that it will take time to adapt and earn their chances.
Both forwards were transfer deadline day swoops, with loan ace Ince moving after not playing a game for parent club Stoke City since December, while permanent signing Adebayo is jumping from League Two Walsall to the the Championship.
Ince did see action in a substitute’s cameo in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with his old side Huddersfield, while his fellow new arrival remained unused on the bench.
Having notched just six times on the road this term, Town next travel to a Birmingham City side that have the worst defence on home soil.
Talking about the prospect of the strike pair playing, Jones said: “Fans want to see stuff and I totally understand, but we’ve got a level of player here and Tom hasn’t played since the 29th of December, so to ask him to go into a Championship game and do things, he has to build.
“We gave him 14/15 minutes the other day. He’s had a real good week training and his time will come and I’ve no doubt very soon.
“With Elijah, we’ve got to gauge it, but I’m excited about Elijah. I tell you, he’s impressed in the short time here. But I don’t just want to put him on stage. He’ll have to earn his way in.
“Once he does that, if he takes his opportunities, he’ll stay in and that the way it’s always been here.”
With pedigree in the top two divisions of English football, and a short-term deal to stay with the Hatters until the end of the season, Ince is arguably ahead of Adebayo in the pecking order, but Jones said: “We’re excited about them both for different reasons.
“Tom we want to get him up to speed as quick as we can and then Elijah gives us something different. He looks, very, very good in training, really does give us something different and I’m excited about both signings, one’s short term and one’s medium to long.”
Luton’s tally on their travels is the lowest number of away goals scored by any team in the Championship this term. However, progress has been positive of late, if not results. They’ve been the better side in large spells at Brentford and Blackburn on recent away days, but came away with hard-to-take 1-0 defeats in both, despite creating plenty of chances.
“We want to score goals,” said Jones, adding: “Some are clear-cut and we’re having better chances that most teams we’re playing against. It’s just that, one, we’ve got to have that belief. We’ve got to show the technique, composure and quality in the final third and that’s what we’ve got to do.
“Between both boxes we’re a good side and we don’t concede many. Realistically, we’re a very difficult side to beat and to play against because we’re organised, structured, we work hard and press. We’re aggressive, so the goals will come if we keep creating the chances.
“We’ve worked on a lot of stuff now, tweaking certain things so I’m sure that we’ll get the reward for our work.
“The hardest thing in football is to score a goal. When we’re at our limit, then sometimes we don’t get what we deserve, but we have to show a little more composure and control at times.
“It’s not for the lack of trying because we had far in excess the amount of chances that Huddersfield had the other day. And, to be fair, the goal that we conceded was as poor as we’ve conceded for a long, long time, in terms of set-up and how it went in.
“We’ve just got to make sure we keep doing the right things and if we do that results will follow.”
I don’t think any reasonable fan expected either new signing to start on Saturday. What we might have expected, given the fact that a second goal was proving elusive, was for someone who’s scored a number of goals this season, albeit at League 2 level, to be given a chance after, say, 65-70 minutes to put himself about, shake things up a bit – and maybe snatch a goal. As it was, only too predictably, 1-0 became 1-1, and two vital points were lost. I accept that Adebayo might not have scored, that the game might still have been drawn. No-one can say for sure either way – but it would have been worth the risk. If subs are supposed to be game-changers, you have to give them the chance.