Luton boss can understand if summer signing is frustrated by a lack of game time

​Luton boss Rob Edwards can understand if summer signing Tahith Chong is feeling frustrated by his lack of first team action so far this season.

The 24-year-old was signed for a fee of around £4m from Birmingham City back in July, going on to start the first four top flight matches of the campaign. However, he has only begun two of the last 15 outings, with nine appearances off the bench, although he didn’t feature against Newcastle United and Sheffield United over the festive period.

The ex-Manchester United youngster was introduced at half time during Saturday’s Premier League clash against Chelsea though, the hosts 2-0 down to Mauricio Pochettino’s visitors. He went on to have a huge impact, as although Town conceded again when Cole Palmer went through to add a third on 69 minutes, was part of a rip-roaring comeback that saw the hosts go close, scoring twice to end up falling just short of salvaging a point.

With Chong reminding those in attendance of just what he was capable of, Edwards said: “He’ll be frustrated at the moment and understandably so as they all want to play. I think I’ve got 16, 17, 18, it’s hard to give a number now, but people who could start and clearly Chongy is one of those players. You get in the team and you stay in the team by playing like that when you get the chance to come on.

"That's the hardest bit of my job, you have to disappoint people, I hate that. But you get in the team, you stay in the team by performing really well when you come on, affecting games, training really hard. He does that and he’s done that today.”

Chong himself admitted it had been tough playing a limited role in recent weeks, but knew he wasn’t the only one in the Town squad that was having to bide his time, adding: “Obviously when you don’t play you’re disappointed. I think it’s normal, I’m not the only one going through that. There’s still other players as well, so when you get the chance, when you come on, you’re just trying to make an impact really.”