Jones believes Town haven't seen the best of on-loan Blades defender yet
Luton chief Nathan Jones believes the Hatters haven’t seen the best of on-loan Sheffield United defender Rhys Norrington-Davies just yet.
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Hide AdThe 21-year-old full back moved to Kenilworth Road on a season-long loan deal during the summer, making a fine start to his spell with an excellent performance in the 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Norwich City.
He then grabbed two assists for Jordan Clark in the wins over Reading and Derby County, while also playing a big part in Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s match-winner at Sheffield Wednesday.
Prior to the international break, Norrington-Davies started to suffer with the hectic schedule though, as without another natural left back due to Dan Potts and Brendan Galloway both being injured, the non-stop run of games caught up with him.
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Hide AdHe was taken off at half time in the 3-0 defeat to Brentford with a hamstring problem and didn’t feature against either Rotherham United or Huddersfield Town.
However, Norrington-Davies' form, which had already seen him earn a maiden Wales call-up earlier in the season, was enough to win a place in the squad for the recent Nations League matches, as he picked up two more caps for his country in the matches with the Republic of Ireland and Finland this week.
With Dan Potts and James Bree now available though, Jones might have the luxury of giving the young full back some respite in the future, with Luton going into another manic sequence of matches, as the boss said: "The full back situation has been really difficult since the start of the season.
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Hide Ad"Potts got injured inadvertently after the last game of the season, then we signed James Bree, but we signed him late because of the negotiations.
"Within two games he got injured, (Martin) Cranie, who is a different type of full back, has done absolutely outstanding for us on both flanks.
“Rhys started like a house on fire first, but then, at 21 years of age, when you play that amount of games in quick succession, because we had no other one to bring in, we’ve not seen the best of him.
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Hide Ad“Now, it’s good that we have that amount of players in that area, so that we can freshen up, have that athleticism and that attacking edge from our full backs and that’s something we work on.
“We feel we’ve done brilliantly to get through this spell because we’ve had a lot of players without a pre-season, game time and some have got injured.
"Now we feel we’re in a better place and hopefully we can show that with results."
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Hide AdIt's not just Norrington-Davies that Jones feels can get better, but his whole squad.
After winning their battle against relegation last term, Town have started this season impressively, to sit in 10th place, just two away from the play-offs.
They could break into the top six with victory over Blackburn Rovers tomorrow, as Jones continued: "There will 100 per cent be more to come because it’s how we work here.
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Hide Ad"We don’t just rest on our laurels and hope to nick stuff, we want to be better.
"Yes, we’ve got a good defensive record at the minute, but we want to keep that defensive record, maintain one and develop the other.
"Then we become the type of side that we were at League One and League Two level and that’s a work in progress.
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Hide AdIt’s not really easy to do. You either spend a monster amount of money and buy the best already, or you develop the ones you have and we’re a very good club at developing and we enjoy that side of it.
"We have players that are really getting to grips with the Championship and the more work you give them, the better the environment and the better the results."
Jones is also confident to that he is putting together a squad who are capable of not only establishing themselves in the second tier, but then pushing on from that, as he added: "It depends, one how good your work is, two, how well people take it on board.
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Hide Ad"At the minute, being established in the Championship is being at a good level for two or three years.
"We retained our Championship status last season, we are showing that we are now competitive at Championship level, how competitive, the next 35 games will tell.
"That will give us a clearer picture of how well established we are.
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Hide Ad"Now if we improve significantly on where we were last year, we’re well on our way but we want to do it safely and we also want to do it playing a certain way, our way.
"There is a lot of factors to consider here, we are not trying to please anyone, all we’re trying to do is move the club forward on every level and we believe we are doing that, with the help of a great board and a great CEO (Gary Sweet).
"Let's not forget the fans as well because the fans are playing their part in all of this even though they’re not at the games.
"It is all part and parcel of the one team, one goal thing that we have here where everyone plays their part."