Jones hopes supporters won't be banned if Luton are put into tier three restrictions

Hatters boss Nathan Jones is hoping that Luton doesn’t find itself back in a situation where fans aren’t allowed into Kenilworth Road if tier three restrictions are imposed this week.

The UK government was scheduled to meet again on Wednesday to review what tier each area should be allocated, with Bedfordshire in tier two when the rules came into force last month.

Health secretary Matt Hancock is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons at 3.30pm and lead a Downing Street news conference, with speculation that London and large part of south-east England could soon join much of the Midlands, North West and North East in the highest tier, which means fans can't attend sporting events in stadiums.

Luton have already had two matches with fans present, both games going off without a hitch, something which Jones feels should be taken into account as speaking to the press this afternoon, Jones said: “I’m very hopeful that that doesn’t happen because I’m not seeing the necessity of it.

“I’m not Matt Hancock, but we’ve now got a vaccine.

“This is flu season, they’re testing more people so there’ll be more coronavirus cases, so I don’t think it’s running out of hand.

“We had 2,000 fans inside the stadium, in terms of the social distancing and that’s not going to suddenly cause another spike.

“There are a lot of things going on that we have to make sure that we do very well because we don’t want another spike, we don’t want people to lose their lives or to get the virus.

“But there are certain things now, where I think we’re in the midst of it.

"We have to learn to cope with it and just shutting everything down, I’m not sure that is the right thing do.

“It’s a thankless job, setting the thing for a whole country to try to curtail a pandemic, it really, really is.

“But decisions have to be made for people’s livelihoods and a lot of people are losing their livelihoods because of this pandemic and because of lockdowns.

“Now, whether they’re entirely necessary, that’s the thing that’s up for debate, or whether certain restrictions could be eased, allowing for sensible progress, in terms of going back to normal.

“Now, we can’t go from 0-100 (mph) in terms of normality, but certain things, lots people and clubs are running well, if you see an adherence to the rules, then definitely.

“I’m sure London buses and tubes opening up, I’m sure there’s far more contamination on those than there is in a football ground.

“If you look at our football ground, we can socially distance quite comfortably, and some of the grounds, it’s even easier.

“So I think, one, we have to be careful that you don’t do things willy-nilly, but, secondly, I think we have to realise that people’s livelihoods are going under here and we can’t just allow it because we think it’s the best thing, because I’m not sure it is the best thing to do, at times.”

Without supporters, Luton had struggled at home, with just two wins from their seven previous matches, only scoring seven goals in the process.

As soon as fans were allowed back, Town produced their best performances of the season at home, beating Norwich City 3-1 and then seeing off Preston 3-0, with a terrific display.

Jones felt that it had most definitely played a part in the sudden upturn in form, adding: “We’ve had our two best performances and two biggest wins, so I don’t think there’s any coincidence.

“Our fans are massive for us, at this level when we are establishing ourselves now, and especially our ground, because out ground is special.

“A lot of people speak ill of our ground, but it’s a special, special place when the atmosphere is right and we can generate massive noise with 1,000 or 2,000 there.

“That’s quite unique at this level because not a lot of clubs can do that, so, we’ve been delighted to allow fans back in.

“The fans have been immense since they came back and we’ve responded with those performances, but I’m sure it’s all been a knock-on effect of allowing them through the turnstiles.”