Jones: Morrell needs to battle it out with team-mate Rea for a place in the Luton side

Midfielder Joe Morrell will have to battle it out with team-mate Glen Rea to win his place in the Luton side according to boss Nathan Jones.

The 24-year-old has endured a limited amount of playing time since arriving from Bristol City in October, Town paying an undisclosed fee for his services.

He began with two impressive showings off the bench against Stoke City and Milllwall, before earning a full debut in the 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday.

Morrell was then back among the substitutes for the next two matches, recalled for the 1-0 win at Rotherham, when he found himself replaced at half time.

Since then, the Wales international has made just two more starts, once in the league, the 0-0 draw at Coventry in December and the 1-0 FA Cup win over Reading on Saturday, restricted to just a further two outings from the bench as well.

It means that from the 15 games in total Morrell has played this season, only eight of them have been for his club side, featuring in seven internationals for his country.

Despite impressing against the Royals at the weekend, he was then dropped from the match day squad for the 2-0 defeat to QPR on Tuesday night and speaking before the fixture, Jones said: “We’ve got a decent squad, but we don’t just bring players in who are all right for a month, straight away, sometimes you’ve got to look at the big picture.

“Glen Rea has done excellent in that position, so that’s Joe’s competition and Joe has to be better than Glen in terms of that.

“He’s a slightly different player, but Joe has come in as part of a Championship squad.

“He’s played a game and that’s what we want, it’s a squad game now, it’s not an 11 game.

"With us we’ve not got massive, massive signings that most Championship sides have got, big players they have spent big money on.

“We’re more of a collective strength in our squad, so at any time if we make changes we know we’ve got able deputies.”