Dewsbury-Hall thankful that Town boss Jones stuck with him during 'frustrating' spell

Midfielder happy to have support of Luton chief
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall goes for goal during Monday's 2-1 defeat to BarnsleyKiernan Dewsbury-Hall goes for goal during Monday's 2-1 defeat to Barnsley
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall goes for goal during Monday's 2-1 defeat to Barnsley

On-loan Luton midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall hailed the support that manager Nathan Jones has shown him recently by allowing him to play through his slight dip in form.

After a magnificent start to life at Kenilworth Road, with the Foxes player winning a host of star man awards, including scoring the winners against Bristol City and Bournemouth, the 22-year-old came off it ever so slightly in the following matches.

However, rather than bring him out of the team for a few games, Jones opted to play him through his sticky spell saying last month: “Kiernan’s been a little bit off it lately, but what we’ve decided to do as he’s such a good player is play him through it.”

It was something that Dewsbury-Hall was pleased to hear, as when asked about the manager's faith in his ability, he said: “It’s nice to know that he believes in me and he’s going to stick with me.

"I made a really good impact at the start of the season and maybe because I wasn’t hitting those heights as much, that was the frustrating thing.

“It's just about blocking out any negative things and working hard on the training pitch and the rewards will come.

“There’s been times where maybe I could have had one or two more assists and on another day I would have, but it’s just about how you react to that and keep going forward in a positive way.”

Dewsbury-Hall had only made 16 senior appearances before moving to the Hatters, with the majority of them, 14 in fact, coming during a loan stint with League One Blackpool last term.

He has now played 33 times in the Championship and on how he felt he has done during his time at Kenilworth Road, he continued: “I think I’ve progressed a lot as a player.

"I've learned a lot here, not just as a player as a person, working under different coaching, management, working on new things, a new style of play, it's only benefited me.

"You have your ups and downs, you're never going to play well for the whole season but it’s about how you react to that and react to adversity.

"I feel like I've grown as a person and a player and it’s only going to be a positive for me going into the rest of my career.”

So far, Dewsbury-Hall has managed two goals and four assists for the Hatters, although it could have been more, particularly on Good Friday, picking out Elijah Adebayo, only for the forward to miss from close range.

The midfielder added: “He’s been fantastic since he’s come in and hopefully he’ll keep getting chances like that and we know that he’s going to put them away.

"It happens, strikers miss them, but in a game like that when we’re 1-0 down, it could have changed the game and put us in a good position going into the rest of the game.

"It’s little margins in football, once we start maybe getting the rub of the green a bit more, we’ll see what happens.”

Related topics: