Burke's impressive displays since joining from Hull is providing 'wonderful' competition at the back for Luton

Hatters boss Nathan Jones is happy with the ‘wonderful competition’ he has at centre half this season after the impact that summer signing Reece Burke has made since arriving from Hull City in the summer.

The 25-year-old was prevented in beginning the campaign for Town due to injury, before making his full debut in the goalless draw against Sheffield United in late August, starting five matches in a row.

He then had spell out of the side before coming back in for two matches during November, only to then miss the next three again.

However, returning for the 3-0 reverse at Blackpool following an injury to Tom Lockyer has seen the ex-West Ham centre half, who cost Hull £1.5m when joining back in July 2018, Luton snapping him up on free transfer, saw him remain in the side for the six matches in a row.

Burke has impressed hugely on the right hand side of the three centre halves, with his ability to not just win his headers and clear his lines when needed, but to continually bring the ball out from the back with real quality, overlapping his wingback at times to even get to the byline and send over a decent cross as well.

He was one of the starring lights in the disappointing 2-0 defeat at Sheffield United on Saturday, before a red card on the hour mark for hauling down Rhian Brewster saw him forced to sit out the 2-1 win over Bristol City in midweek.

With just a one match ban, Burke is now back in the reckoning for the home game against Blackburn Rovers this weekend, as on his progress this term, Jones said: "That’s why we signed him, we signed him to develop play.

"We want him to be even more aggressive as that has probably been his criticism, but he’s added to that and he’s really front-footed.

"We love him, he trains well, technically very good and provides wonderful competition for what we have.

"We’ve got six centre halves, strong centre halves, we include (Dan) Potts in that, Potts and Kal (Naismith) for that left side.

"The central ones you’re looking at Sonny (Bradley), Gabe (Osho), you're looking at Reece, Locks and with Glen (Rea) that can fill in if needed, so we’ve got a real strong group there that compete and compete well."

The defender had helped Luton keep three clean sheets during their six matches ahead of the Robins clash on Tuesday night, as Jones has been impressed by the strength of his back-line against some tough opposition.

He added: "I think we’ve defended really well.

"In terms of the games we’ve had and the opposition we’ve had, to do what we did shows we’re in a real good place.

"You’ve only got to look at things like Fulham, we limited Fulham to very, very little and then afterwards they’ve just gone on and played cricket scores.

"You’ve only got to look at Reading, Reading were really good against Middlesbrough before they played us, we totally nullified them and won the game, and then they lose 4-3 (against Huddersfield).

"It shows they have got threats and shows how well we played and I think that got missed when we played them, so we’re at a decent level.

"Bristol City are a good side and scored three versus Cardiff and were comfortable in the game, so it just shows that we’ve got a good way about us at the minute."