Hatters midfielder Rea in contention for Red Devils clash as Luton chief ponders changes with Watford trip in mind

Midfielder Glen Rea is in contention for the Hatters Carabao Cup clash against five-time winners Manchester United tomorrow evening, despite going off at half time in Saturday's 2-1 win over Derby County.

The 25-year-old didn't appear for the second period, with James Bree coming on, Jones revealing afterwards it was due to the former Brighton player feeling light headed during the contest.

Giving an update on Rea this afternoon, Jones said: "He’s still a plonker, if that’s what you want to know, but he’s a lot better than he was at half time on Saturday.

"He’s back in contention, he felt a little bit light-headed, these things can happen in heat with dehydration, when you exert adrenaline and all those things can contribute.

"Then we didn’t want to take a chance in case something more sinister happens because you’ll never forgive yourself, so we just took the precaution.

"It wasn’t too costly because we ended up winning the game."

Whether Rea makes the team or not is another matter though, Jones opting for nine changes in the previous round when the Hatters knocked Reading out 1-0.

On what kind of side he will put out to face the Premier League giants, Jones continued: “What we will do is make sure we have a team capable of competing with what I would imagine would be an extremely strong Man United side.

"So whether we freshen it up, or continue in the same vein as we’ve done in the cup or the league, we'll see tomorrow.

"But what we will do is have a very competitive side out and a side that’s very motivated to do well.

"We can’t think of sentiment in what we do.

"We said after we beat Reading last week, we came in a meeting on Thursday and debriefed and said in terms of weeks for Luton Town, they don’t come much bigger to play Derby at home, which we had the added spice of Wayne Rooney and being an ex-Premier League club.

"Then Man United at home, then out fiercest rivals in Watford – what a mad but great, great week to be a Luton Town player.

"That’s the motivation, as not everyone will play three 90 minutes, I’m pretty convinced in that, so you have to use the squad.

"What we have to do is try and pick a team, pick an eleven that is going to be competitive and has a chance of winning all three games.

"However we change or mix it up, it might not be changing for this one, it might be for Saturday so it will give me food for thought.

"But we have a good group, a group that is competitive and a group that’s on the front foot at the minute."

With Luton heading to their arch enemies Watford on Saturday, for their third game of the week and the fourth of a spell which sees them play five matches in just 15 days, Jones will take into account the fitness of his squad when deciding who feature in which fixture.

He added: "We have a protocol when we have a three-game week with how we do stuff.

"We learned from certain mistakes last time for example, when we played Swansea away, Leeds away and Reading at home.

"We learned from that because to win a Championship game, exhaustion is full-throttle and against Man United we will be full-throttle.

"We will use the squad for these next three games, in what order we use the squad will be up to us and what we want to do.

"But, the good thing about us is we don’t have a massive variance between players.

"We have two in pretty much every position but if I make a change to any one person, there is no uproar from the fans saying ‘how can you play him instead of him?’ Because we have a real level playing field.

"Whatever changes I make or if I don’t make any changes it’s because we want to have continuity and then we will adjust off the back of that."