Hatters chief still considering whether changes need to be made for Royals clash

The Luton chief couldn’t hide his frustration when speaking to the press after watching the Hatters fall to a 2-1 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest last weekend, even going as far to say he felt ‘let down’ by two three individuals.

When asked at his press conference yesterday about altering Town’s starting line-up that takes to the field at the Madejski Stadium, he said: “I don’t know yet, everybody’s in the hat, as I’m assessing everybody.

“As I’ve said to you previously, we treat everybody the same, everybody gets the same opportunity, everybody gets the same tactical instruction.

“So I’ve not differentiated between anybody this week, but I can assure you I’ve looked at partnerships and I’m still assessing is the truth.

“I know how Reading are going to play and I know how we’re going to play, it’s just making the final decision on the personnel.”

Although Jones wasn’t going to name the players he felt had been below par, the manager did admit to having words with them during training this week.

He continued: “I’ve spoke to one player, but I don’t want to really say any more than that.

“It’s ongoing, I’m assessing people, I have to assess people every day, I have to assess our players every day.

“Players can turn things around in five, six, seven days, so we’ve got another training session and I’ll have a clearer idea after that, that’s the frame of mind I’m in.

“I have to be open-minded, I have to get the best players on the pitch that’s going to gets us a result on Saturday, and that’s always the case.

“It’s very easy after you win, not everything’s perfect when you win, but not everything’s shocking when you get beat, my job is to analyse what’s gone on, and that’s what I’ve done.”

Jones did concede that he had witnessed a reaction amongst his players during the week after his strong words following the Forest performance, adding: “I have, particularly today (Thursday), there was a real intensity about training that I really, really liked.

“But that should be there all the time, because I’m a coach that constantly assesses training performances, I’m not someone who just assesses on a match day.

“Your standards day-to-day, is going to take you a long way, long term and that’s something I still feel like we can be better at.

“You’d have to ask the players (what they thought of his comments), I think you know me by now, the players know me, I won’t go away from being honest.

“Maybe I say too much sometimes, I’m not really bothered though because it’s the truth and I just felt let down by two or three performances and those players know that.

“It’s the first time really, I’m not talking about physical effort here, physical effort has been here all the time, it was other things.

“That’s all this week has been about, everybody’s reaction.

“How they are mentally, physically, are they fresh, are they ready to roll their sleeves up for the battle, for the fight and that’s still ongoing.”