Jones hails Pearson's 'brilliant' reaction after being taken off early against Brentford

Town defender Matty Pearson has shown a ‘brilliant’ reaction to his premature substitution during the Hatters’ 3-0 defeat to Brentford on Saturday in the eyes of boss Nathan Jones.

With 37 minutes gone at Kenilworth Road and the Hatters already trailing 2-0, Jones opted to bring on Kazenga LuaLua in a bid to give Town more of an attacking threat.

That meant dispensing with the three centre halves system and it was Pearson who had to make way after seeing his number raised, both Tom Lockyer and Sonny Bradley staying on.

On how he has dealt with the decision in training, Jones, speaking on Tuesday, said: “He was brilliant. I actually singled him out today because he trained full throttle yesterday and I think he wanted to get that out of his system.

“It hurt him when he was brought off, but it was a tactical substitution, not anything about how he was doing, it wasn’t that.

“We couldn’t persevere with that, we needed an extra midfield player on, I felt, we had to sacrifice one of the centre halves.

“So, it was a tactical decision at the time. One that Matty will take well because he’s brilliant to have around.

“There’s no problems, but he reacted in a way that I would’ve reacted myself and in a way that I would’ve wanted my players to as well.”

When asked what he made of Town’s recent formation with three at the back, selected against Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest, Jones added: “We’ve got to be tactically aware.

“We got a wonderful result away at Sheffield Wednesday, I thought we were excellent against Forest until they went down to 10 men and it negated the three centre halves, so I think we’ve shown that we’re adaptable and that’s really, really important to do that.”

"We’ve won games playing 4-3-3 and we’ve won games playing with three at the back, so that’s the good thing.

"It’s not like we’re in dire form and we’re losing games and we’re trying to change stuff to find a formula, that’s not the case.

"It’s a decent place to be in, and they have to understand, because it’s a very tactical league and people play three at the back, 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, whatever, and we have to be adaptable."