Luton head to Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship this afternoon, aiming to bounce back from a pair 2-0 defeats against Stoke and Millwall, which will give manager Nathan Jones a selection headache.
The Owls are bottom of the table after getting a 12-point deduction and have only won at Hillsborough once this calendar year.
Here are the main talking points from Jones’ pre-match press conference.
Selection dilemma
Following the late substitution of Matty Pearson on Tuesday at Millwall, there’s been fan speculation that Wales international centre back Tom Lockyer will take his place today, including from the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust Podcast, which discussed Matty Pearson’s position (listen below).
New signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who has yet to feature after precautionary Covid-19 test, is now available, while James Collins must wait until Wednesday’s visit of Nottingham Forest for his return after his positive Coronavirus test. Harry Cornick is a doubt after missing Millwall with a groin strain, while Dan Potts and James Bree are unlikely to be available.
Joe Morrell, signed from Bristol Rovers, have made two substitute appearances, so will be in contention for a start. And there’s a question as to whether Milton Keynes loan striker Sam Nombe may now get some minutes after three halves of football where Luton have hardly looked like scoring.
Talking about the players he has at his disposal, Jones said: “Of course, everyone’s always in contention as that’s the squad we’ve got, we’ve always wanted that kind of squad.
“The performance the other day (against Millwall), the thing we’ve got to eradicate is just moments, as moments are taking away from what the game plan is.
“We could have imposed ourselves far more in the first half but if we’d have gone in at half time without conceding that goal, which was a good goal to give away as we’d have four warnings prior to it, we should have dealt with that.
“And then, second half, it could have been a totally different game, we were always going to do something different second half, because we wanted to establish ourselves on game, it’s the same as against Stoke, we were excellent for 45 minutes, came out to re-establish ourselves and then within a minute and a half we were one down and that changes game.
“That’s Championship football, the margins are so, so, so small, some games you look at there’s hardly a shot on target, someone wins it and they go on a run and that’s the margins of Championship football, you have to eradicate ethos errors because we weren’t committing those errors before.”
Jones wary of Wednesday’s strike power
Jones said: “They’ll have a big budget. The strike force they’ve got would probably be our entire budget, so they’re a dangerous side.
“The fact that they have had points deductions, I’m not commenting on that, but they have experienced players and enough quality in the side to hurt Championship sides, established Championship players, like (Calum) Patterson, they have (Jack) Marriott now, who they would’ve had to pay a lot of money for.
“Jordan Rhodes, who’s established and as prolific a Championship striker as you get. Josh Windass, who they paid a lot of money for, so they’ve got enough threats to hurt you and we have to be wary of that and that’s what people need to remember.”
Views on Owls boss Gary Monk and the meat pies at Hillsborough
“I’ve known Gaz for years,” said Jones, adding: “I played against him in his Swansea days. I can’t quite call him a mate but, in terms of football he’s a guy that I know very well. I’ve come up against him a few times in his career.
“To be fair to Gaz, he’s a bit like Red Adair at times. He does a great job in difficult circumstances. Points deductions seem to follow him, so credit to him.
“He’s a really good guy, it’ll be good to see him and it’s a shame we can’t have a beer and a meat pie, because the meat pies at Sheffield Wednesday are very good in the manager’s lunch, or they used to be.”
Can Luton capitalise on Sheffield’s Hillsborough form where they’ve won just once this calendar year?
“Maybe, but the Championship is so weird,” said Jones. “It’s such a weird league that anything can happen in any week. I watched them last night (Wednesday), playing Brentford, and they were very good. Brentford showed real quality, which they can, but apart from that it was a very even game.
“The Championship is such a weird league that someone said to me, ‘you don’t need to do a hell of a lot different and you can lose two on the spin, and you don’t need to do a hell of a lot different and can win those two’, because the margins are so small. We have to make sure we’re on the right side of the margins.”
Navigating a congested schedule
Jones said: “We’re like everyone else, fatigue will be a factor, games coming thick and fast. We can’t train, training with half a group, constant, constant work in terms of how they’re feeling, monitoring them. Do we put too much into them? Do we do a little bit less?
“But they’re in a decent place, we have got one or two coming back, obviously still waiting on James Collins, so we’ve just go to get through this period, if we get through this period, then we’ll be in a wonderful place, they just come thick and fast these games.
“There’s just no planning, and you see it happen in the Champions League, you’re looking at Liverpool, you’re looking at Man City, they’re picking up injuries as well, everyone’s in the same boat.
“It’s a relentless schedule at the minute, that’s why I think it was a real bad decision on the substitutes, as I think if you just could use five then you could save people an extra 10, 15 minutes, which potentially could save an injury, but no (there’s) logic.”
