Jones looking to get injured players back during international break

Town boss Nathan Jones has welcomed the international break as a chance to get a number of his injured players fit again when the season restarts next weekend.

The Hatters were without as many as seven of their first team squad for the 0-0 draw with Sheffield United on Saturday, including club captain Sonny Bradley and midfielder Jordan Clark.

However, with a fortnight off from the Championship, Jones is now hopeful of having more options available to him when Luton head to Blackburn Rovers in seven days time.

He said: “We’ve had so many injuries.

“Henri’s (Lansbury) come in and been brilliant, then had to come straight back out.

“We’ve lost Jordan Clark at a time when he was absolutely flying, Cameron Jerome, there’s so much that we’ve had to contend with.

“Now with the two week break it gives us the opportunity to get a lot of players back as we've got eight out today and that’s a real positive for us.

“This two weeks gives us a chance to regroup, recoup, get everyone back and then let’s go the next one.”

Although Town had a depleted squad available to them against the Blaides, they still dominated a side who were in the top flight themselves during the second period.

Fred Onyedinma had a goal ruled out for offside, while Harry Cornick hit the bar from close range, as Jones continued: "I thought we did (dominate), we’ve had situations, set-plays, where we’ve hit the near post and we’ve got to be more clinical than that.

"Right after half time, we came out and we had an identical situation to what we had last week (against Birmingham), where we hit the near post, they break and score, it’s dead, and exactly the same.

"We hit the near post, it's cleared, they don’t score, but it’s those opportunities we have to take and that’s us becoming a better Championship team.

"But we’ve shown we can go toe-to-toe and this is a good side, they've just signed Ben Davies from Liverpool, they’ve got John Egan an international, Chris Basham who’s played in the Premier League.

"Their midfield, masses and masses of budget, so we know that we are stretched at this level compared to teams like that, so the fact that we are competing is fantastic."

Full back James Bree almost won it late on when his 25-yard flew agonisingly wide, but Jones could still reflect on a decent first month, as he added: "He’s got great technique, it would have been a fairytale if he did and would have a been a really nice finish before the international break, but it’s a positive month we’ve had.

"The work-rate and the pressing and the high intensity shown means we’re not sitting off.

"We’re not taking things on the chin and that’s the pride that I have, because they work hard, they give me everything.

"They’ve had a really really take one on the chin last week (5-0 defeat to Birmingham) but I thought we were excellent."