Luton chief credits Mpanzu for completing first 90 minutes since April during Reading stalemate

Town boss Nathan Jones paid tribute to midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu after he came through a first 90 minutes since early April during Tuesday night’s 0-0 draw against Reading.

The 28-year-old had only played 83 minutes of first team football this term after recovering from a lengthy spell out due the knee injury suffered against Huddersfield Town on April 11 last term.

However, despite his lack of game time, with Henri Lansbury injured and Gabe Osho suspended, the long-serving Mpanzu got through an entire game for the first time since April 5 when he faced Peterborough, earning the sponsors man of the match award on the night.

Jones said: “It’s a credit to him because he hasn’t had enough training to put in a 90 minute performance, but he does, he somehow does.

"That’s a credit to him, credit to how he trains as he trains at a 100 mile an hour every day.

“It’s the same with (Luke) Berry.

"We’ve missed Berry, Berry’s been really close to getting on the end of something with his trademark runs into the box.

“His touch and a little bit of timing, but he’ll come good as he’s the best at doing that.

"We’re glad we’ve got those back and we just somehow need to get some centre halves back.”

Mpanzu, who is 14th in the Hatters' appearance list after playing his 338th game for Town in midweek, was now looking to gain some momentum after such a period of absence, as he said: “Injuries are part and parcel of the game.

"Hopefully I’m doing everything right, it was a muscle injury, so hopefully I’m back, fully fit and we can push on until the end of the season.

“It’s just about maintaining the knee, it was my first operation so I just had to take it slow, make sure all my muscles around the knee were fighting fit.

"It took longer than usual, but hopefully now I can have a run of games.

“The support from the staff throughout my rehab has been great.

"Si (Simon Parsell, head of medical), Chris (Phillips, physiotherapist), Daz (Darren Cook, therapist), have been working very hard with me, so hats off to them for putting me in a position where I can be playing week in week out in the Championship and hopefully pushing the team on.”

Town defender Amari’i Bell was happy to see his popular team-mate back in action once more too, adding: “It was good to see him back on the field.

"He was man of the match which was good for him and his confidence.

"As long as he keeps on doing that until the (World Cup) break which is not going to be great, as we get the run of games then we get the break, and it’s a long time away from the game.

"So we’ll just have to do what we can until then.”