Cuthbert unlikely to be risked for Carlisle

The Town captain had to come off after 70 minutes against Stevenage on Saturday, with the hosts falling to a 2-0 defeat.

Speaking to the press this afternoon, Jones said: “It’s a hamstring thing, so we might not risk him but we’ll assess everything day by day.

“He’s our captain, so he is a big miss, but the squad we have, we have different options.

“Scott’s a certain type of centre half, Glen’s (Rea) different, Johnny’s (Mullins) different, Sheez’s (Alan Sheehan) is different, whatever we have will fit into our gameplan.

“We have the strength in our squad, so the others we have are ample deputies. Whatever we pick will be a very competitive team and back four.

“Glen and Alan played there last year up at Carlisle (2-1 win for Luton), I’ve looked at that game recently and the way we played, they defended fantastically well, so if I wanted to go for those two then I could.”

Cuthbert was part of a changed back four at the weekend from the 4-0 victory at Yeovil as Dan Potts came in at full back, moving Alan Sheehan to centre half and Glen Rea into midfield.

When asked if had any regrets in hindsight over altering his defence, Jones continued: “Maybe looking back I could have played a different side, but regardless of the side I played, I picked a side to combat certain things.

“It wasn’t as fluent a side as it should have been because that’s the side I picked, but we shouldn’t have conceded from a set play as I picked a side that should have been able to combat that.

“Because it was a big side, a strong side, both full backs were bigger than the full backs I have been playing, my defensive midfield players and two centre halves are quite capable of defending.

“So we’ve got five big ones there to defend and we didn’t. All round I could have regrets, but in terms of that little thing then no.”

Meanwhile, on Potts, who only lasted 45 minutes of his first start since New Year’s Eve, replaced at the break by Luke Gambin with Hatters searching for an equaliser, Jones added: “Dan’s been out for a long period of time and we brought him back in as we felt we needed something.

“Then because we lost a goal so quickly, we went back to what we did at Yeovil.

“It’s part and parcel, I spoke to Dan, Dan’s a great lad and I could say that with Jack (Senior) and James Justin that they would be disappointed as well.

“We pick sides on certain games, what we need and if everyone’s at it. No-one could turn round on the weekend say, ‘well hang on, I deserve this,’ because we went right at it at the weekend.

“So now we’re looking for a reaction and we’re hoping that Dan shows that.”