Graeme Jones says that his support for Ryan Tunnicliffe is all that matters, despite the midfielder getting jeered by Luton fans as he was substituted in Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff City.
The 27-year-old has featured in every Championship game this term, but sections of the Kenilworth Road crowd voice their delight when he was replaced by Kazenga LuaLua on 78 minutes, soon after Lee Tomlin had bagged the only goal of the game.
After the game, boss Jones said Tunnicliffe, who joined on a free in the summer, has been ‘good value for money’ and yesterday he illustrated the type of shift the former Millwall man put in, which goes some way to explain why he’s played in all 31 Championship games this term.
“Ryan Tunnicliffe had 1,050 metres of high intensity in 74 minutes, which is a full match performance with still 16 minutes to go. It’s just massive physical effort that people don’t see. So, you have to recover from that in order to go again.”
Asked about whether he’s had to speak to the midfielder since the reaction to his substitution at the weekend, Jones said: “He’s got my support and I think that’s all that matters. You get good and bad moments as a footballer and part of the test is to come through it. The only way to come through it is playing well and winning games. We’ve got another opportunity tomorrow night, him as well.”
Jones was also booed off after the final whistle and he said of his maiden managerial campaign, which has seen Town lose the most amount of games in the top four English divisions, he said: “It’s not been an enjoyable period because you don’t want to keep losing football matches. But, I’ve said before, my standards will remain the same and I’ll make sure the players’ standards remain the same.
“I’m only looking to the next game because it’s the only thing I can control in my job, but I’m a very, very experienced person in these types of situations and we’ve got to keep our standards high, keep working hard and I’m sure it will attend.”
Tonight’s clash against Sheffield Wednesday is the second match of a three-game week. Jones had a 23-man squad train yesterday for the first time in 11 weeks, including Danny Hylton and Sonny Bradley, both of whom he said are available for selection.
Asked if he’ll take the opportunity to make rotate his side, the Luton boss said: “Everybody wants change, in life and in football. Everything’s short term. The performance, with the players who played, should’ve got us a victory (against Cardiff) and we need to remember that.
“I know many people in life you learned their lessons by making mistakes. So, do you get an opportunity to make to be better, to make it right? We’re all human beings and we make mistakes, so they’ll be a bit of continuity.”
