Luton boss: We've been very, very stretched at the back

Luton chief Nathan Jones highlighted the injury problems his defence has suffered after conceding five goals during a humiliating home defeat by Birmingham City on Saturday.

The Hatters have been without captain Sonny Bradley, summer signing Reece Burke and the long-serving Dan Potts this season, with Wales international Tom Lockyer making his first home appearance since February at the weekend after recovering from an ankle injury and Covid.

It has left Town severely light on numbers at the back, Peter Kioso playing as a makeshift centre half alongside Lockyer and Naismith at the weekend, a tactic that Jones changed on going 2-0 down the Blues, with Glen Rea coming off the bench for the youngster.

Bradley is now back in light training after being hit hard by Covid, with Burke and Potts also closer to featuring, as on the injury situation, Jones said: “In the higher up areas we’ve got a lot of options, but defensively we’ve been stretched, very, very stretched and that was the case.

“Reece Burke has played many, many Championship games, nearly 200 Championship games, so has Sonny Bradley, Dan Potts who’s been with us, so we're missing a bit of experience.

“But we were nowhere near today and we have to make sure that we bounce back.

“We did it when we played Reading here (5-0 defeat in July 2020), we had a real poor result, slightly different circumstances, we just have to bounce back.”

Defender Kal Naismith, who has started all four Championship matches this term knows that although the absentees have affected Town, they should have enough within the squad to cope.

He said: “They’re all good players, Sonny has been a big miss, Potty’s a big miss, everyone’s who’s injured are top players who can all bring something, but the players we’ve got are top players as well.

“To go to Barnsley and it was an unbelievable defensive display to this, it’s just disappointing, everyone could have been better.”