Hatters trialist Townsend starts for Luton U21s against Leeds United U21s

Trialist Andros Townsends is starting for Luton U21s in their Premier League Cup clash against Leeds United U21s this evening.

The 32-year-old, who Town boss Rob Edwards revealed earlier today is currently training the Hatters after his move to fellow top flight side Burnley fell through recently, takes his place in a visiting side that also contains Joe Johnson, called up by the England U18s this afternoon.

Jake Burger has the captain’s armband, with Jayden Luker starting as well, the pair on the bench for Luton’s recent Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Exeter City.

The Hatters lost their first game in Group D of the competition, going down 4-1 to Chelsea U21s last month, as on the game, staged at the LNER Community Stadium in York, U21s lead coach Adrian Forbes said: “Looking at the last game against Chelsea, I said after that game that the boys prepared and performed really well.

"The scoreline somewhat flattered Chelsea, so now this game is an opportunity for us to hopefully put out another positive performance and get the result that we deserve.

“The boys have been talking about this one since Chelsea and wanted to right the wrongs of that game.

"We as a Development squad and a Category Three academy are now in a group that has Chelsea, Leeds and Colchester United in it, who are Category One and Category Two teams.

“It’s important that we go and showcase ourselves, prove that we can compete with these teams.

"We are hoping to be a Category Two academy in the future, so we need to be able to compete first.

“It’s a great test for us. It’s a great test for me as the head coach of this team but more importantly, it’s a great test for the players and staff to show how good they are.

“There’s been so many games that the first-team have played where they’ve been close to getting results, which has happened in our group too.

"We are getting there and we have a fantastic group of young players. They’ll have to get used to that pressure.”

Hatters: Jameson Horlick, Jacob Pinnington, Joshua Phillips, Joe Johnson, Christian Chigozie, Claude Kayibanda, Axel Piesold, Jake Burger (C), Jayden Luker, Andros Townsend, Millar Matthews-Lewis.

Subs: Cai Hockey, Archie Heron, Oliver Lynch, Charlie Emery, Charlie Trustram.