Jones felt Hatters missed Rea's influence in Scunthorpe triumph

The former Brighton players was out with a knee injury picked up in the 2-0 victory over Burton Albion at the weekend, with Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu dropping into the holding midfield role, while Jorge Grant came in, the first time in nine games Jones had to change his starting 11.

During the second half, Alan McCormack also came on for his first outing since October, with Grant going off, as on Rea’s absence, the Town chief said: “We missed Glen Rea, I’ve got to be honest with you.

“That’s his type of game, the nitty gritty, you’ve got to do it, win your headers, do it on the front foot and he’s been superb.

“It’s good we’ve got Pelly who can do that. Alan McCormack can come in and do that, as we’re going to need that.

“The squad will be tested over this four or five weeks as there are some big games coming up thick and fast, again, it’s a crazy schedule, it really is.”

Jones had his doubts that Rea would be fit for this weekend’s visit to Walsall as well, saying: “We’re going to have to wait and see.

“I think he’s got to see a specialist as he’s just tweaked his knee, so we’ve got to make sure, so we don’t know yet, but he’s a big player for us.”

Meanwhile, Dan Potts was also not on the bench and explaining the reason behind that, Jones added: “He just tweaked his groin.

"He was training the other day, it was quite a hard session and just tweaked it, so he didn’t travel.

"Hopefully we’ve got him back for the weekend as it's all options that we need.

"We're going to need them over these up and coming games