Jones prepared to embrace new EFL Trophy changes

For the competition the Hatters won in 2009, a one-season trial will feature 64 teams made up of EFL League One and Two clubs, plus an additional 16 from the top-flight’s development systems, with the introduction of a new group stage format with 16 regional groups of four teams.

Although Town’s chief executive Gary Sweet confirmed the club had voted against it in the annual conference and AGM held in Portugal, Jones said: “I would probably take a little bit of the club’s stance on it, but now it’s been cleared, then I think we embrace the format. It will be an interesting twist and it’s only for a period of time, so we’ll see.

“I imagine there will be a few negatives which is what people have already said, but let’s see.

“I’m open minded to a lot of things, I tended to follow my chief exec on the opinion beforehand but now the format’s in place, let’s embrace it and see what positives we can get out of it.

“If it enhances the trophy and there are lots of positives then fine, if it’s not then nothing’s lost and we move on.”