Jones knows Luton need to get stronger in the January transfer window

After a decent start to life in the second tier of English football with Town winning three of their opening 10 games, with two draws and five defeats, they have now hit something of a wall.

Saturday's woeful 3-0 loss at Reading means Luton have now lost five from six, including four in a row, as they sit just one place and one point above the relegation zone.

Jones, who was severely weakened by the loss of James Justin and Jack Stacey to the Premier League in the summer, did bring in a number of new faces, including spending £1.3m on keeper Simon Sluga, plus the likes of Jacob Butterfield, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Callum McManaman arriving on free transfers.

However, with Town now clearly in a relegation battle for the rest of the campaign, the Town chief said: "Last week we were short and this week we were short.

"I’m in a privileged position now where I’ve seen every single one of our players play Championship football and I know everybody’s capabilities, I know what the league is and I’m very, very clear where we are and what has to be done.

"We’ve got to negotiate six weeks first. I’m not a fool, I know the game, I don’t kid myself, but if we do well enough to get to the January transfer window, we’ll need to be stronger.

"As you’ve seen Reading, who are close to us in the table, how strong their individuals are and how much quality they’ve got and we were short.

"Now Izzy Brown’s a big player for us, but you can’t hang your hat on one, other people have to come in and produce and today we didn’t.”

Jones did utilise the loan market before the window closed, bringing in Brown from Chelsea, plus Aston Villa's James Bree and Manchester City youngster Luke Bolton.

The latter was taken off at half time on Saturday after struggling defensively, while being caught out while attacking for the Royals' second goal, plus being on a yellow card too.

Jones added: “Luke’s a young man who’s going to be a very, very good player, making mistakes in our first team, because that’s where we are as a club.

"We can’t spend five million pounds on a right wing back who’s played 150 games in the Championship, so they’re learning in our first team.

"Man City will be delighted that he’s making mistakes in our first team, because when he goes back to Man City, he’ll be a better player.

"Now that’s where we are in the market, I knew the script when we came in, and he needs to learn from today, like other players need to learn from last week.

"That's why I made some decisions, I look at my conscience and I have got no qualms about decisions I made, because I didn't turn away from it, it was the right thing to do.

"I need to make the same decisions based on what I’m seeing, the mentality of the group, physicality of the group, quality of the group, when the Leeds game comes in two weeks time.”