Hatters chief hails the 'outstanding' efforts of Town full back at Huddersfield

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere called Izzy Jones ‘outstanding' after his wonderful display during Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at Huddersfield Town.

The 27-year-old was starting his fourth successive game since making the most of Hakeem Odoffin’s injury, beginning as right back at the Accu Stadium, facing up against former Plymouth Argyle attacker Bali Mumba. However, skipper Kal Naismith, who was one of three changes, recalled after missing the 2-0 success at Peterborough United on Saturday due to illness, went down with around 15 minutes gone due to a calf injury.

When it became apparent he couldn’t carry on, with Harrison Ashby and Joe Johnson on the bench, the latter having played the full 90 at the Weston Homes Stadium a few days prior, it was the on-loan Newcastle United defender who got the nod, rather than the like-for-like academy graduate, which saw Ashby move to right back and Jones shift over to the left.

There he was, in direct opposition to Derensili Sanches Fernandes, who went into the game with seven goals and five assists from his first 13 outings and clearly one of the star players in the third tier this term. The Dutchman, who spent three years at Excelsior, was to prove just that throughout the game, but Jones stood up to the task manfully in the first period, and then grew into the challenge after the break, with an outstanding individual outing.

Although Fernandes did get another assist, crossing for Joe Taylor to thump home a volley, he was then kept as quiet as possible by Jones, who finished joint top of the charts in terms of tackles, with four, making six recoveries, and winning 10 from 16 ground duels, along with his only aerial battle too, as he also was fouled four times to help alleviate the pressure.

Having tested home keeper Matty Young with a shot that the Terriers stopper nervously batted away, Jones was then swapped to the right flank for a period, as he resumed his battle with Mumba, before finishing the contest on the left once more. Easily Town’s star performer on the night, asked if it was his best showing under Wilshere, the Luton manager said: “Probably this period has been his most consistent.

"I think there’s more to come from Izzy with his quality, but in terms of the things that we want from anyone who wants to play in this team, especially in the full back position, then you understand that the importance of connecting with your units, when the ball’s on the far side, staying close to Mads (Andersen), defending your back post, being aggressive in duels.

"So this is probably his most consistent period. It was difficult for him at the start of this block because Hakeem Odoffin was playing there and he was watching on from the side. Sometimes I think when you have that and the players on the pitch, the ones that are starting, when they perform like they do, they set the tone, set the culture, and players watching know when they come in that the minimum they have to do is fight and help the team.

"Izzy’s done that really well, he’s got a lot of quality in one v one defending, he’s got a lot of quality on the ball, which I think at times he’d like to show a little bit more of, but his defending was outstanding tonight. He was knackered at the end, he’s given a lot over the last four or five games, now he’s going away on international duty, he needs to look after himself as he’s important to us.”

Asked why it was that Ashby came on and Jones swapped over, rather than Johnson, Wilshere continued: “We had JJ and that was the discussion. JJ played 90 minutes on Saturday, his first in a while. He gave a lot and he was tired. It’s not easy to come into a game like that at this level and play 90 minutes straight away, so that was the decision. We thought Ashby would be a little bit fresher, but we know Izzy can play on the left and probably one of his biggest strengths is one v one defending. Fernandes is a problem one v one and he dealt with that really well.”

Meanwhile, giving an update on Naismith's condition, Wilshere added: “He felt his calf. We’ll see how bad it is in the next few days. He felt it tighten up, we made the decision which hopefully was similar to Nahki (Wells) when he came off (against Doncaster) as he just felt a little bit of tightness and the scans showed it wasn’t much. Hopefully it is that, but I don’t know yet.”