Luton chief felt Potts and Mpanzu 'became Championship players' during Rovers win

The pair were recalled to the side after neither had started a league match since the 2-1 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion on August 17.

Both gave excellent displays, with Mpanzu full of running in midfield, while Potts was part of a top defensive performance, as the hosts only managed two shots on target all afternoon.

Speaking about Potts first, Jones said: “Dan became a Championship player today, no question in my mind.

“Before, he was flirting with being a Championship player, today he was assertive and he became a Championship player.

“He has to take responsibility for that left back position because he’s got all the attributes to play at this level, but his mental and physical performance was consistent for 95 minutes.

“The result is going to go your way or not sometimes and that really, really satisfied me, Dan Potts’ performance.

“Especially recovering so quickly after Tuesday because the Leicester game took a lot out of him and a lot out of us physically.

"We didn’t have the ball and it was difficult.”

Mpanzu also completed the full 90 minutes at Ewood Park after playing against the Foxes during Town’s 4-0 Carabao Cup defeat in midweek.

Jones continued: “I thought Pelly came in and gave an exceptional level, with the character that he is.

“Again, a boy who’s finding the Championship level but today he arrived.

“He was himself, which is all you ask for, so there were lots of satisfying things.”

With Town themselves still adapting to life in the second tier of English football, Jones knows the importance of players starting to prove they can cope with the step up in class.

He added: “I think it’s ongoing. You collect more players who believe they’re Championship level and we’ve done that, but there are still others that come into the team that need to believe that.

“You need to add to the group and if you talk about splitting shifts, we got one player out of Izzy (Brown) for 70 minutes and one out of Callum (McManaman) for 26 minutes.

“So, you can’t carry anybody at this level and what happened to us today is we didn’t carry any player.”