Hatters duo are rated as touch and go for Swansea clash

Luton striker Jacob Brown has been rated touch and go by Town manager Rob Edwards as to whether he can be involved in this afternoon’s Championship trip to Swansea City.

The 26-year-old had started five of the Hatters’ last six games before missing out on the squad for the 1-0 loss at Bristol City on Boxing Day due to an injury picked up in the 2-1 win over Derby County a few days beforehand. His absence was one of two changes made by Edwards, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu starting and Joe Johnson replacing Mads Andersen, who couldn’t manage to go again after making his return from a lengthy spell out with injury recently.

Discussing the squad he will take to Wales, Edwards also hinted that there was a chance that defender Amari’i Bell could potentially be involved too, the Jamaican international missing the last four matches with a hamstring issue. He said: “Brown had half a chance in the first half last week and got a really bad dead leg. There was swelling in his quad and going into his knee so we’re hoping he’ll be all right for next time out, we’ll see.

“We’ll see how Amari’i is too. Amari’i is getting close, so we’re hoping. If we go with the same group, we go with the same group. I keep saying at the moment, up and down the country, teams are having similar sorts of problems and we’ve just got to cope. It gives other people opportunities. You’ve seen the likes of Joe Johnson or Josh Phillips getting an opportunity and taking those chances, so we’ve got to back them as well.”

Luton were held to a 1-1 draw by Swansea City at Kenilworth Road earlier this month, a game where the Swans really should have won, denied the three points by an outstanding display from goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski. They had been in slightly indifferent form since though, winning 2-1 at Plymouth, but then suffering back-to-back defeats against Sunderland at home and Hull City away.

Luke Williams’ side bounced back with a 3-0 victory over QPR on Boxing Day, a first home win since since early November, to sit 10th in the Championship standings, as on what the Hatters could take from their clash in Bedfordshire, Edwards added: “We’ll be able to learn from that and we know at Kenilworth Road it’s a bit of a different game.

"We’ve shown today against a team (Bristol City) that wants to try and take the ball that we did, we took it and as good as they are and how much they want to try and dominate, we actually did that as well. We’ve got to make sure we are brave with the ball and when we do win it back we’ve got to keep it and play our way and try to hurt them. It can’t just all be without the ball and that’s really important going into Swansea otherwise they can make you suffer.”