Kioso not worried about his own future at Luton for now as he looks to help out in Hatters' play-off push

Defender Peter Kioso isn’t worried about what might happen at the end of the season regarding his own future with the Hatters as he looks to play whatever role asked of him to in the club's push towards the Championship play-offs.

The 22-year-old is thought to be out of contract in the summer, with manager Nathan Jones stating early last month that a 'big decision' will be made on the former Dunstable and Hartlepool full back once the campaign has ended.

Speaking in February, he said: "We have to get to a point with Pete where we believe he will be a Luton Town player or we be fair to him and let him develop his career elsewhere.

“We won’t keep Pete around if he won’t get game time.

"What we have to do now is test him and then we have a real big decision to make in the summer.

"I really hope Pete does well and integrates himself and shows that we can move forward with him, and he can move forward with us.”

Although Town have a massive nine games to go now following a 4-0 win over Preston last night which saw them move up to fifth in the table, Kioso, who started his first match since January 22, insisted he will focus on the team's needs rather than his own for the time being.

He said: “I think for me, I’m not worried about the end of the season.

“I’ll deal with that when it happens, right now I’m worried about helping the boys out and making sure that when asked upon I’ll do what I need to do.

"The boys know that I'll always have their back and they know I’ll always have their back, so I'll take it game by game.

"I’m not worried about the end of the season, I'm worried about the next game which is Hull and to see what we can do.

"We want to get some more points on the points tally, that’s the most important thing.”

Kioso, who had been with Dunstable Town and Hartlepool before heading to Kenilworth Road under previous boss Graeme Jones in January 2020, had been sent out on loan at MK Dons for what was due to be the rest of the season, after playing three times for the Hatters.

He was having a big impact for the Dons, playing 19 times and scoring four goals, before being recalled by the Hatters in January.

Kioso has gone on to feature in nine of Town's following 16 matches, with five starts, but admitted it has been difficult not playing as much as he would have liked, continuing: "It’s always hard.

"As a player the hardest thing is going from playing to not playing at all, but I know it’s bigger than me.

"What we're doing here is exceptional, the boys, the club, what we're doing here, nobody would expect it.

"But when we sit in that changing room and I look at the players and I look at the mentality that everybody has in that changing room, I'm not surprised.

"I feel like we work hard every day, we put shifts in every day and we're just reaping what we’re sowing, that’s it.

"When asked upon I’ll always make sure I give 100 per cent, even more as I know that the boys depend on me and I don’t want to let them down.

"That’s the most important thing for me and I know that the boys would do the exact same thing for me.

"The group that we have in there, the club, the team, is just a thing of it’s a family and we’re trying to stick together.

"That’s what’s working in my opinion, that's why we are where we are because the family spirit that we have."

Boss Jones was quick to praise his defender for the way he has been around the squad since coming back too, saying: "To be fair with Peter it’s even more so as he’s had to show real humility, as he was in a promotion chasing team in MK Dons and we’ve recalled him for our own purposes to hopefully join a promotion chasing team here.

"He's had to bide his time, he’s had to bite the bullet and he’s just shown great humility and when he’s come in, he’s invariably done very well.”

The impressive Kioso has always had that inner desire to do well as released from MK Dons as a youngster, he dropped into the non-league scene at Creasey Park, then earning some rave reviews in the north east for Pools, before moving to Luton.

Loans at Bolton Wanderers and Northampton Town last season kept him fully active and means he has already racked up over 130 senior outings in his career, a fine effort at still such a young age.

Although back in the team to face Chelsea in the FA Cup recently and then playing last night too, with nine matches still to play, Kioso won't be too happy if that was the end of his season, adding: "It’s always a good feeling, but I’m quite an ambitious player, quite an ambitious man as well, I always want more.

"It’s a great day for me, but it’s an even better day for the boys, even better day for us as a team.

"We're back in the play-off places and that's where we need to stay in and around, just keep working hard and keeping getting more points every game."