Jones not giving anything away over who will be fit for crucial Royals clash

Luton boss Nathan Jones wasn’t giving anything away when it comes to discussing the team he will be able to select against Reading in Town’s play-off decider this weekend.

Ahead of Monday night’s 7-0 defeat to Fulham, Jones was without a host of first team players, with James Shea, Gabe Osho and Glen Rea all ruled out for the season.

They were joined on the sidelines by Luke Berry, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, James Bree, Sonny Bradley and Elijah Adebayo, with Allan Campbell named in the team, but then withdrawing due to a tight hamstring before kick-off.

To make matters worse, Fred Onyedinma limped off after half an hour, with his replacement Peter Kioso also carrying a knock according to Jones, as was unused substitute Harry Cornick.

Jones conceded in the week he would be praying for some ‘divine intervention’ to help ease Town’s crippling injury list and when asked if any of his players would be back to face the Royals, with Luton knowing victory will secure their place in the top six, Jones said: “It’s day-to-day with us.

“People pick up big ones, little ones, people come back, people are not quite ready and we have gambles on one or two.

“It’s all hands to the pump at our club, but we realise that we want to achieve something.

“So, it’s day to day, there’s no point in me giving anyone hope, or no hope, because we’ve still got 48 hours and 48 hours at this football club is a hell of a long time at the minute.”

With Town still not assured of their play-off position, then there is no chance of Jones resting anybody with an eye on any potential upcoming fixtures, as he might have done had the Hatters been over the line.

He continued: “We have to play the strongest side available, it is the only game that matters now, that is what we have to do.

“We have to make sure we get the right result so that we’re not relying on people.

"It has been unfortunate because of the way we play, things like the Chelsea game which are all brilliant but a game too far for a couple.

"We lost Gabe after it, people had to play and go again, with us having Berry out, Clark has been out, Campbell was out early on in the season, then Pelly got injured, so we’ve really lacked that depth in certain areas.

"We were down five centre-halves and had to play full-backs all over, so we’ve really been hindered, but somehow they got results and we have to keep doing that.”

One plus point was the return of midfielder Jordan Clark at Craven Cottage though, the 28-year-old replacing Robert Snodgrass for the final 23 minutes, his first match action in well over a month.

Jones added: “We need as many of our good players as we can, we’ve missed some big, big players.

“It’s not been small players, we’ve been without your (Aleksander) Mitrovic’s, your (Fabio) Carvalho’s, without your Harry Wilson’s, we’ve been without your Antonee Robinson’s.

“We’ve been without our top players, so yes, it’s good to get those back.”