Hatters chief hails Jones' ability to get through a full 90 after hamstring injury
Winger returns to Town’s defence against Barnsley
Luton boss Jack Wilshere praised Izzy Jones’ ability to last the entire 90 minutes on his comeback from injury when going up against one of the division’s most exciting wingers in Barnsley’s Reyes Cleary at the weekend.
The 26-year-old has had a difficult time of it this term following a stress fracture in his back that prevented him featuring at all until Wilshere had replaced Matt Bloomfield in October, getting his first minutes in the 1-0 victory at Northampton Town. He then swiftly suffered another problem in the 5-0 thrashing at the Tykes a few games later, ruling him out for the next two months, eventually fit enough to come on in the 1-0 win against Blackpool on January 31.
Having been talked up as Wilshere’s first choice back ahead of the transfer window closing, Jones then began six league games in a row, going on to start nine out of 11, before being forced off in the 3-1 Vertu Trophy final victory over Stockport at Wembley Stadium last month, which saw him sidelined for the next three matches.
There were some worries amongst some that his season might even be over, as speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, the Town manager hadn’t been too optimistic about his chances of playing. However, when the teamsheets dropped at 1.45pm, Jones was named in the side selected to take to the field, Nigel Lonwijk missing out from Tuesday night’s 2-0 win at Rotherham United.
Not only did he start, but the ex-Middlesbrough attacker went on complete the entire contest, as facing Cleary, who has an impressive six goals and 16 assists this term, the only time that he really escaped his attentions was when the ball broke to him via a block from Hakeem Odoffin, the winger’s shot parried by Josh Keeley at full stretch, Adam Phillips nodding home the rebound.
The Guyana international then began to feature as more of an attacking force, with two cross-shots cleared away from danger by the visitors’ defence, while in the second period he continued to get forward on a more regular basis with the Hatters needing a goal to take their season into the final week. They got one through Kasey Palmer, with Jones a vital reason that it was a winner and not an equaliser, throwing himself in the way of another Cleary drive and then able to run the ball away from danger too.
On his display, boss Wilshere said: “I must say credit to Izzy in that he’s had a stop-start season, but he’s proved time and time again that when he’s been out of a number of games or a long period, he has the capacity to come in and play from the start, last 90 minutes and deal with one of their big threats. He did that and we brought Nigel on at the end to help see it through, but I felt we were comfortable at the end of the game.”
Asked just why it was he decided to bring Jones back in at the expense of Lonwijk and change a defence that had kept a clean sheet during Tuesday night’s 2-0 success against the Millers, Wilshere added: “We made the decision yesterday (Friday) in the afternoon after speaking to the medical team and seeing what they thought he could do.
"We wanted to signal our intent right from the start with that right hand side, and the threat we have there. We had a few moments in the first half where we found Izzy, he’s served Shayden (Morris), Izzy went on a little dribble and we thought we could hurt them down that side. There’s always that conversation between coaches and medical staff of maybe 60 or 70 (minutes), but there’s also that feeling on the pitch that the players give you and he was keen to stay on and credit to him
“Izzy’s a smart player too. We give him license to be free and let Kal (Naismith), Mads (Andersen) and Haks (Hakeem Odoffin) stay back a little bit and then use Izzy’s quality down the side. It’s a different dynamic with him and Shayden, as Shayden wants to stay on the outside, Izzy probably wants to stay on the outside, but I thought Izzy picked his moments to come inside, picked his moments to run behind and he’s an intelligent player.”