Town defender not getting frustrated just yet about a lack of action

The defender made his debut off the bench for the final moments of the 1-0 win against Exeter in early February, but then didn’t feature for the first team again after that.

He wasn’t involved in the match day squad at Portsmouth on Saturday either, but speaking after getting 90 minutes in the 2-0 win over Bedford Town last Tuesday, Jones believes this is the time to make his breakthrough.

He said: “When I came in January, I knew the situation.

“Especially with promotion and centre half is a main position, you need probably experience there.

“They were on a promotion push, so I knew what was happening.

“I came for this season, I know the league very well, that’s why I’ve come here for this season, so I’m not too frustrated yet.

“I’ve had limited time through injury and then coming here and the squad being very strong last year, so as long as I get 90 minutes I can prove to the manager that I can play in the league team.”

Jones has had chats with boss Nathan Jones about his desire for first team football though, as he continued: “I spoke to him, even when it was going on before we got promoted, I said to him about playing.

“He kept me assured of the plan that they had for me, so I’m just going to keep at it.”

Jones’ task of breaking into the first XI appears a difficult one as Luton strengthened in that area during the summer, bringing both Sonny Bradley and Matty Pearson in.

With Alan Sheehan club captain, Jones said: “They’re excellent, all three of them are, there’s great competition.

“But if you haven’t got competition at a club then you can sometimes actually go off the boil a little bit.

“Now we’ve got competition, everyone has to raise their game .”

Jones was alongside youngster Toby Byron at the Eyrie last week as a young Luton side impressed throughout.

The 22-year-old, who has experience of League One with both Swindon and Blackpool, said: “I’m used to having new partnerships, if I’m with the likes of Alan Sheehan, Sonny Bradley and all them, or teaching the younger ones, it doesn’t bother me.

“I know what it’s like being a young player, it depends what type of player you are, sometimes you need a rollicking or encouragement to spur you on to do better.

“As long as I can keep playing football, get as many 90 minutes as I can, then I’m not going to complain.

“I thought we were very solid defensively and then we took our goals very well.

“We probably could have been three, four nil up at half time, but if we were a bit more clinical, we probably could have finished the game off a bit quicker.”

With his past knowledge of the division still fresh in his mind, Jones is confident of a good season at Kenilworth Road this term, adding: “I think it’s a very strong squad.

“I don’t want to set our standards too high, but I think we know what we want to do.

“We’ve just been promoted, I don’t think you can really guess on things like that, but if we can challenge, even top half, play-offs, you never know in this league.

“It just takes a run. You look at Plymouth last year, they were bottom for most of it and then they went on that amazing run and finished seventh, so we’ll just keep strong whatever happens.

“If you look at the squad from last season, it was actually more a League One squad than League Two.

“The lads that have come in are obviously an improvement to the squad and the manager thinks they improve the squad too.”