No injury issues as wingback is dropped by Luton for Chairboys win

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere admitted that there was no injury concern behind Izzy Jones’ absence from the Luton XI that ended their long, long wait for an away win when triumphing 2-1 at Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

After recovering from a lengthy injury that had kept him out since the 5-0 loss at Barnsley in November, the 26-year-old came off the bench twice against Blackpool and Bradford City last month, before starting Town's last six successive matches, earning a penalty in the 3-1 defeat at Cardiff City. Having moved to right back and then right wingback, Jones was at fault for at least two of the goals against Reading in a 3-2 home loss just over a week ago, when his misdirected header allowed Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan to open the scoring, before he was beaten too easily at the back post for the striker's second of what a match-winner hat-trick.

With Jones starting as Luton drew 1-1 against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night, Wilshere opted to make four changes when heading to Adams Park on Saturday, with the Guyana international not even on the bench and asked if that was down to injury, then speaking at the weekend, with Town hosting Exeter City this evening, Wilshere said: “No. I’ve said that we always have to change and make changes, make decisions, and he was one that we decided today he wasn’t going to be with us, but he’s back in contention of course.”

One player who did stand out for the Hatters in Buckinghamshire was defender Hakeem Odoffin, as the summer signing moved into the middle of Luton’s back three and produced a magnificent defensive display that saw striker Nathan Lowe, who had scored twice in four outings since joining on loan from Stoke City, not even have a sniff of goal.

Wilshere added: “I thought in the first half our high press was really good and this is a team that I quite like when I was watching them. I thought they play really good football, they try and play through you, so we had to be on point with our high press, be on the front foot, which we were. Then we won the ball back a few times which we could have used better, but eventually when you do that teams will start to play over and Haks was a monster back there.”