Hatters chief praises club's board as Town get the best preparation for Terriers clash

Luton boss Nathan Jones has thanked the club's board for the help in preparing his side for today's Championship clash at Huddersfield Town.

Having been at Rotherham United just 30 miles down the road on Wednesday night, rather than head all the way back to Bedford to travel up again on Friday, Town stayed up in Yorkshire, training at Liversedge FC in the build-up to the game, the Northern Counties East League Premier Division side situated a mere 15 minutes from the St John's Smith Stadium.

Speaking after the 1-0 win over the Millers, Jones said: “We’re actually staying up, the club have been brilliant with us, we’re going to stay up and use the training base and limit the time that we spend on the road so we get maximum recovery.

“We thank the club for that, and then we go into the game, but we need the international break to come to, as it’s a ridiculous amount of games, a ridiculous level on all players and I’m talking Premier League, Champions League everyone, really.

“The intensity of games and we need this as if we don't have international breaks then this would be a watered down competition and that’s what we can’t have as it's one of the best leagues in the world and we’re proud that we're in it.”

Jones made six changes for the midweek victory, giving George Moncur his first league start since August 2019, also bringing in Ryan Tunnicliffe as well, with Harry Cornick fit enough to begin and James Bree back on the bench after recovering from his knee problem.

The Town chief now has some selection posers for this afternoon, saying: “Rhys Norrington-Davies wasn’t as bad as we thought, so we have him, Danny Hylton to come back in.

“We rested a couple, (Kiernan) Dewsbury-Hall and Jordan Clark, so we’re in a decent position.

“We know we have a strong squad, we’re pleased, we have a humble squad, it’s just they need a little bit more belief that they can do well at this level.”

That was certainly the case in the 90 minutes at the AESSEAL Stadium on Wednesday as Luton were on the back foot for almost the entire first half, grateful to keeper Simon Sluga for keeping them on level terms when the teams swapped ends.

However, that was to change in the second period, Hatters grabbing the ascendancy, and with that, the only goal of the game through James Collins, while they could and should have made it more too.

Jones continued: “We’ve been used to being a front footed side and been used to going after teams, with the levels we’ve been at.

“Now we pay teams respect at this level, because you can get hurt if you do that.

"We went after Brentford the other day and got hurt, so we’re respectful of the level.

“When we’re in the ascendancy, we want to go for the second and I thought the players were excellent.

"They took the game-plan on from 45 minutes, we had to make one change to get a little bit more physicality into the midfield and once we did that, I thought we were excellent.

“There were some real good performances out there and from some people who haven’t played as George Moncyr hasn’t played for a long time, Kazenga (LuaLua) hasn’t, Tunnicliffe hasn't, so I’m really, really pleased with the levels we attained.”

A lot of Town’s thrust came after bringing on midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu at the break for Joe Morrell, as his ability to carry the ball upfield and drive forward powerfully was crucial to Luton getting on top.

On his display, Jones added: “Outstanding. We needed a bit more drive, we tweaked it slightly, dropped Tunni a little bit deeper and then we asked for real energy from those two.

"Pelly was excellent, but I thought Luke Berry was excellent second half as well, the runs he made, he was front-footed, it was his best game for us since I've come back.

"I'm delighted with that, as we got to grips with them, first half we didn't and we got overrun, second half we overran them which was key to the victory.”