Hatters chief on having to manage a baby boom at Luton!

Luton chief Graeme Jones admits it has been a challenge for some of his squad to manage the balance between matters on the pitch and those off it with the current baby boom hitting Kenilworth Road.
Town defender Matty Pearson is about to become a dadTown defender Matty Pearson is about to become a dad
Town defender Matty Pearson is about to become a dad

Both Luke Berry and Sonny Bradley have become fathers recently, while Matty Pearson is on the verge of joining them in the coming days, while on-loan Chelsea midfieder Izzy Brown's girlfriend is also pregnant too.

Jones himself has first hand experience of what the players are going through away from the football pitch, having been in the situation when at Wigan Athletic during his career, so knows it can be far from easy.

He said: “There was something going on nine months ago, that I’m not aware of! But it does have an impact as these boys aren’t robots.

“They’re good, honest boys and I’ve been a dad as well.

“I remember I was playing for Wigan Athletic, and I had a newborn and a 20-month old, so we had two babies and it does impact your life.

“You’ve got to be a little bit selfish as a professional footballer and saying, ‘sorry you’re going to have to get on with it, I need sleep,’ because you need to rest and recover in order to perform.

“So it’s about getting that balance and you don’t get that balance in a month. Sonny had his littleun a month ago, you don’t get that balance overnight.

“Then Matty you’re thinking ‘I hope Mrs Pearson hangs on until Wednesday or hangs on until next Sunday,' you don’t want anything to happen overnight, so there’s all these things, real life that goes on in the background.

"Ultimately when you step over the white line, there can be no excuse, you just have to perform.

"That’s the industry we’re in, and it’s a mentality, it’s one that I learned.

"It’s not about what food you’ve ate, or you haven’t ate, it’s not about him much sleep you’ve had or you haven’t had, how you trained.

"Sometimes it’s just about performing and that’s the job we’ve got.”