Jones reluctantly agreed to let Kioso move to Cobblers on loan

Luton boss Nathan Jones revealed that he hadn't want to let defender Peter Kioso go out on loan again during the January transfer window.

The 21-year-old had been recalled from his spell at Bolton Wanderers earlier this month, where he played 14 times, scoring three goals, and was on the bench for Town's 2-0 home defeat against QPR.

However, he then moved to League One side Northampton Town for the rest of the campaign on Monday, impressing on his debut in the goalless draw at Fleetwood the following evening.

Jones had been reluctant to agree to the deal initially, but felt it was important for Kioso's progression, as he said: "It’s a tricky one because I didn’t really want him to go, but we felt we have a lot of people that can cover that area.

"We have James Bree, Matty Pearson, Martin Cranie and Jordan Clark who can play in that area, so it was a decision that we needed to say, really, in June, where will Peter Kioso be?

"We want him to be really close to our first team and, by doing that, is it better to keep him around our environment? Or get him tested at a different level?

"We came to the decision of testing him at a different level.

“He had a very good loan at Bolton and we had no problem with him staying at Bolton, but I wanted to get him back in the fold for a few weeks.

“He came back, we spoke, made a decision and hopefully he’ll go and do really well at Northampton.”

On whether he saw Kioso, who started out with Dunstable Town before heading to Hartlepool United and then joining Luton last January, as a future first team player in the Championship for Town, Jones added: "Yes we do.

"He has to adapt to the level, he has to get there, but we’ll never know until we actually play him.

"But we have people who are ahead of him that are more used to Championship football and so on, so that’s why he needs the game time elsewhere.”