Jones: 'Important' Berry doesn't need to be banging on my door in order to feature

Luton midfielder Luke Berry doesn’t need to ‘bang on the door’ of manager Nathan Jones to push himself forward for selection according to the boss himself.

The 29-year-old came off the bench after an hour to score twice for the Hatters on Saturday with two excellent finishes from close range as they grabbed a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Blackburn Rovers.

It was Berry's first appearance of the season, although that has been down to his unavailability due to a persistent calf injury rather than any other selection issues.

Now he is fully fit again, the ex-Cambridge and Barnsley player doesn't need to remind the management at Kenilworth Road just what he can bring to the team in the Championship, as Jones said: “He doesn’t bang on the door, but he trains well regularly and Luke’s been out, so it’s not like I’ve kept him out of the team, then suddenly put him in and he’s taken his opportunity.

“Luke’s been injured so we built him back up, we’ve given him an opportunity on the weekend and he’s taken that opportunity.

“There’s two more opportunities this week, so if he does feature, he would’ve earned that.

“He doesn’t need to bang on the door because we know how important he is.

“He’s still here and we do rate him and we care about Luke.

“So, the fact that he’s done well at the weekend has been brilliant and, if selected, he can add to that and keep moving forward himself.”

On Berry’s absence throughout pre-season and the start of the campaign, Jones added: “He came back flying, he was uber fit and we were delighted with him.

"Then he picked up a niggling calf injury and that curtailed him.

“Then, when you have young children, sometimes you pick up stuff that they pick up and suddenly you miss a bit of training.

“Luke’s back now and we want him to kick on from, one, the start he had in pre-season and, two, from where is from the weekend.”