Luton chief explains why Isted has replaced ex-Hibernian and Arsenal keeper Macey on the bench for Town

Luton boss Nathan Jones has explained why he has chosen Harry Isted to be on the bench for the club’s last three Championship matches rather than Matt Macey, insisting he is ‘slightly ahead’ of his competitor for the number one jersey.

After arriving from Hibernian for an undisclosed fee in the summer, Macey was named as sub keeper for the first nine league fixtures, also starting the Carabao Cup first round 3-2 defeat to Newport County, where he was at fault for the Exiles’ winner.

However, when Blackburn Rovers visited Kenilworth Road ahead of the international break, it was Isted who got the nod to understudy on-loan Nottingham Forest stopper Ethan Horvath on the day and he has remained there for the matches with Hull City and Huddersfield Town.

The 25-year-old, who has been with Luton for five seasons now, finally made his first team debut last season, replacing the injured Jed Steer in the FA Cup fifth round clash with Chelsea, producing a magnificent performance on the night, making some terrific saves.

He then had to come on when James Shea suffered a serious leg injury in the 1-0 win at Cardiff a few weeks later, getting the nod for his first start in the 1-1 draw with Blackpool.

However, due to Luton only having youth teamer Jameson Horlick as back-up, it meant they had to bring in an emergency loan signing for the second time that season, borrowing Matt Ingram from Hull City.

With FA rules stating he had to play, it saw Isted return to the bench for the final two matches, plus the two-legged play-off semi-final defeat against Huddersfield.

On why he has now displaced Macey as Town’s second choice keeper, Jones said: “It’s competition between the three of them.

“There’s no one, two, or three, it’s how you train, how you play, how you go about things and Harry’s been in excellent form.

“Now Harry’s been very unfortunate at this football club because of the rules, ridiculous rules, because you can't take an emergency goalkeeper to sit on your bench, so we had to take someone who we believed probably wasn't better than Harry and leave Harry out.

“Harry had to miss two of the best games of his career because we couldn’t take someone and put them on the bench, so that was really, really frustrating.

“But he’s trained at a magnificent level, he's pushing Ethan and we feel he’s just slightly ahead of Matt at the minute.

“But bear in mind, Matt’s only been in the building a few months, whereas Harry’s been here a number of years.

“So it’s constant competition and that can only be good for the club.”

When asked how Macey, who has played European football for Arsenal earlier in his career and made 44 appearances for Hibernian last term, also featuring in the Scottish FA Cup Final the year before, had taken being dropped from the squad, Jones added: “Very well, people only react very well here otherwise they don't survive.

“He’s shown great commitment to come here, wanted it, wanted to do it.

“He knew what we were doing in terms of the numbers and could have had an easier option, but hasn’t.”