Jones explains his reasons for dropping Bradley

The 28-year-old hadn’t missed a league game for the Hatters since the 1-1 home draw with Sunderland in August last season, but was one of four changes at the Madejski Stadium, missing out on the match-day squad entirely.

After falling to a 3-0 defeat, when asked why he chose to leave Bradley out, Jones said: “I wanted to give Sonny a break from it, wanted to take him out of the firing line.

“Me and Sonny had a long conversation yesterday, he knows my reasons, and he’ll be ready for the game against Leeds after the next international break, it’s as simple as that.

“He was taken out of the firing line because some of the things that happened today have happened at other places.

“It’s a saturation period and no more than that, nothing wrong with him, I wanted to refresh him.

“I think Lloyd Jones did okay when he came in, but it’s not about Lloyd Jones or anybody else, Sonny knows the script, I spoke to him privately and it was for today’s game.

“He knew that, that’s where we were after last week’s game. It’s not just Sonny, so that was the reason why.”

In Bradley’s place was Lloyd Jones, the defender handed his full league debut despite arriving at Kenilworth Road back in January 2018.

On his display, Jones said: “I think he did okay, I’ve liked Lloyd from the minute I came to the club.

“If Lloyd Jones has played 100 games we get a different performance, that’s where we are at this club.

“Now you look at (Michael) Morrison who was at Birmingham, you look at Liam Moore, the other centre half, they’ve got games behind them, that’s at Championship and higher, we haven’t got that.”