Luton midfielder determined to put the hard work in to earn his place in Town's Premier League XI

​Town midfielder Jordan Clark is determined to keep putting the work in to try and force his way into manager Rob Edwards’ Premier League team this term.

​The 30-year-old had to sit out the start of the campaign due to ankle ligament damage suffered during Luton’s pre-season friendly out in Germany just before the big kick-off. Last season’s play-off hero then returned in November for the 1-0 defeat at Manchester United, coming off the bench at Old Trafford, but has been restricted to a further four substitute outings since.

With Ross Barkley becoming a permanent fixture in the Hatters’ midfield, developing an impressive partnership with Arsenal loanee Sambi Lokonga, Clark knows he has a battle on his hands to try and get back in ahead of the pair now. He gave himself every chance by catching the eye during a second half cameo in Sunday’s 0-0 FA Cup third round draw with Bolton Wanderers, as speaking afterwards, he said: “It’s nice to be back, it’s been a while, you’ve just got to wait your time.

“The lads have been doing really well, especially in the league so it’s just one of those things. You’ve got to work even harder in training, keep doing all the right things and when you're called upon you’ve got to be ready. I’ve been back fit for a while now, so it’s just a case of bide my time and wait for the manager to call on me again.

"Hopefully it won’t be too long so I can get a few Premier League games under my belt and help the team as much as I can. It was just nice to be back on the pitch, playing in front of the fans here, shame about the result, but in the replay, hopefully we beat them.”

Town chief Edwards was clearly impressed by Clark’s efforts in the half an hour or so he was on the field, saying: “I was really pleased with Clicker when he came on, really, really pleased. He had a really good influence in the game.”

It might be that the former Barnsley and Accrington Stanley winger gets a longer crack when the two sides meet again at the Toughsheet Community Stadium on Tuesday evening after a third round tie in which they couldn’t be separated. Town had struggled to really get going in the opening 45 minutes, but were the more dominant force after the break, and should have had a penalty late on when Alfie Doughty was tripped inside the area, only for VAR to somehow uphold referee Andrew Madley’s original call that there was no foul.

Clark continued: “It looked like a pen from where I was. When they check it you never know what’s going to happen with VAR these days. I got told it was a stonewall penalty, so I can’t understand why they didn't give it, but it was just the final piece of the jigsaw for us. The keeper played really well for them, (Nathan) Baxter, he’s a good keeper to be fair, but we’ve just got to go again.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game. I know they’re League One, but they’re up the top of the league for a reason. They've got a good manager, played some nice football, I know a couple of their players really well. Every game in the FA Cup or any other cups are tough games, so we prepared well, prepared right, gave them the credit they deserved. Credit to them, they put up a good fight so we’ve just got to go again.”

Having been held twice at home in the FA Cup last term, with Wigan Athletic and Grimsby Town forcing replays at Kenilworth Road, the Mariners going on to knock Luton out 3-0 at Blundell Park in the fourth round, then Clark knows Town haven’t been able to hit their best form in the tournament recently.

With the winners heading to either Everton or Crystal Palace after Monday night’s draw for the next stage, he added: “We said before this game we want to have a good cup run. There’s a lot of big teams playing each other, so it’s a good chance to get far. I don’t know what it is about the cup, it’s a bit of a hoodoo on us with every game we’ve played since Rob has come in, but hopefully we can put it right next week and get through.”