Jacob Butterfield came in for some praise from his manager for a promising performance on his full debut for Luton, despite the 2-1 defeat at Cardiff.
The midfielder, who joined Town in the summer after leaving Derby County, played as the deep lying midfielder and was a key component of the Hatters impressive possession stats, with 63 per cent on the Bluebirds’ patch.
Boss Graeme Jones said: “I wanted the ball. I know we would have to defend lots of aerial threat from set plays and lots of direct football, so when we had it I wanted Jacob on the pitch.
“I tried Andrew (Shinnie) there against Norwich and it didn’t quite work, but Jacob had played there for two or three games in pre-season.
“I think, on the ball he was fantastic, he helped us to defend with the ball, so I was really, really pleased for him.”
The other change that Jones made from the 3-3 Championship opening night draw with Middlesbrough, was the handing George Moncur a start and he said: “George, it was a little bit of a change of position for him, but he’s got that one-v-one quality and I thought Dan Potts read it down that left had side really well.
“So, for 94 minutes everyone will tell me that it was a great decision. If you’re assessing it after 95 minutes, it wasn’t and that’s life as a football manager, I suppose.”
Jones also reflected on a summer transfer window that saw him signing 10 players, including on transfer deadline day, season long loans for Aston Villa’s James Bree, Chelsea’s Izzy Brown and Manchester City’s Luke Bolton.
Jones said: “Ive really got two people for every position now. I said to the boys, ‘I’m not one of these managers who plays paper football, with he’s the best player and this is the best team’.
“I believe in actions and putting them out on the pitch and letting football make the decisions. That’s a process that we’re in as well with the new signings.
“We’ve taken 10 this year and obviously we know Kaz (LuaLua) but Kaz is just getting tip to speed.
“I’ve told them (with) competition for places, I’ll pick the best 18, and I’ll pick the best 11, I can assure you. It’ll be done in an honest manner.
“I’m still assessing and if I was assessing today there would be lots of good, but not good enough.”
