Nathan Jones faces former club Stoke City in Championship clash

Nathan Jones’ Luton Town travel to his former club, Stoke City, in a clash which could see their hosts go within touching distance of the Play-Offs amidst a potential return to the Premier League for the Potters.

During the 2018/19 campaign, Jones was at the helm of Luton Town who at the time were in League One and on course for promotion. The 48-year-old subsequently left the Hatters in the January transfer window for Stoke City however, the Welshman’s time at the Potters was ultimately unsuccessful, resulting in his sacking after only recording three wins in 21 games.

Moving on seven months from his departure, Jones had singed a “long-term” deal with Luton Town. Since his return to the Bedfordshire outfit, the Welshman has picked up 37 points as the Hatters look to emboss themselves into the mid table of the Championship.

The last time these two sides met was at Kenilworth Road back in October, which saw Stoke City win 2-0 as goals from Steven Fletcher and Nick Powell helped the Potters to all three points in the early stages of the 2020/21 campaign.

Michael O’Neil’s side currently sit in ninth place and only seven points from sixth placed Bournemouth, an encouraging win midweek for the Potters against Sheffield Wednesday gives a much-needed boost around the club as we move forward to the latter stages of the league campaign.

With a relatively strong squad on paper coming into this clash, O’Neil’s Stoke will appear as favourites to the naked eye. However, Jones and Luton have become the masters of scrapping together points when they need them, having recorded a total of nine 1-0 wins across all competitions so far.

The Hatters will be without loanee, Tom Ince, as a result of playing against his parent club. Luton fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Cardiff City prior to this fixture as they look to bounce back and return to winning ways against Jones’ former club.

Luton will be without defender Tom Lockyer who has been ruled out with an ankle injury in which he picked up in the Hatters’ defeat to Cardiff and will also be without full back, James Bree who hasn’t started since their 3-1 defeat to Chelsea in the FA Cup.

Meanwhile O’Neil confirms that Stoke will be without Nathan Collins for a large put of the remainder of the season following his injury against Norwich City, in which he has a fracture in his foot.

Seb Mannell will be at the Bet365 Stadium this weekend for the return visit of Nathan Jones at Stoke City.

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