Hatters chief happy with Panter's loan spell at Dundee despite defender's lack of game time

Hatters boss Nathan Jones insists that young defender Corey Panter is having a worthwhile stint on loan at Scottish Premiership League side Dundee this campaign.

The 20-year-old, who signed a new development deal at Kenilworth Road this term, headed to Dens Park on a season-long deal back in July, but after featuring heavily in the warm-up matches, has only made two appearances so far, scoring once, in the 5-2 League Cup win over Forfar.

His other outing came for the U20s in the 2-1 Challenge Cup defeat at home to Peterhead as despite being a regular on the bench for James McPake's side in the SPL, Panter is yet to get on the field for a league game.

Although Dundee are sitting bottom of the table after without a win from their opening eight games, with just three draws so far, Jones wasn’t too frustrated with the situation.

He said: “No, not really, he’s playing in the Scottish Premiership and he’s at a decent side.

“I know Charlie Adam there and he’s doing well.

“If he gets some game time then that’s better than just playing under-23 games here and with the greatest respect to some of the opposition we play against.

“He’s in a first team environment, he’s moved away and he’s not like he’s gone to Glasgow or a big city, he’s gone to a place that is slightly more remote, so he’ll be able to settle down and knuckle down into his football.

“We’re really happy with that and if he happens to make ten, 12 Scottish Premiership appearances, or cup games, then it’ll be a productive exercise.

“Plus he’s gone away and he’s making more of a name for himself, so we’re pleased with that.”

Another youngster Avan Jones is also catching Jones’ eye at Kenilworth Road with the full back featuring in the development squad games against Bournemouth U23s and Millwall U23s recently.

He also travelled with the first team squad for the 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth last month, involved in the warm-ups ahead of the game, as Jones added: “We really like Avan, he’s a wonderful athlete, it’s just we have to work with him in terms of other things.

“We’ve had Aidan Francis-Clarke on the bench the other day, we’ve had Avan Jones in the squad and we’ve had to rely on these because of the predicament we were in, but that’s only going to stand them in good stead.”