Left-back to have knee operation
The Hatters will be without Jake Howells for this weekend's clash with Crawley with a knee injury.The 24-year-old sat out of last weekend's 1-0 win at Leyton Orient with manager Nathan Jones explaining the defender needed a scan to get to the bottom of the issue. That has since revealed a piece of bone floating in Howells' cartilage which will require a small operation.
Jones does not know how long he will be without Howells' services, but the boss was impressed with Dan Potts' performance in last weekend's victory at Brisbane Road and the former West Ham man is likely to continue at full-back.
The Hatters go into Saturday's game with the Red Devils on a four-match winning streak - but Jones is demanding more.
"It's great we've won four on the spin but we want more," he said. "We want the players to realise how much work they've done to get the results they have - but now they have to replicate that and improve further."
Only leaders Northampton have won more points than the Town since Jones took control in January, and the manager is hoping his knowledge of Saturday's visitors can be of use in the Hatters' bid to make it five wins on the bounce.
"When I was at Brighton, Crawley were my local team," Jones said. "When I took this job the first game I went to see was Crawley versus Cambridge. I've watched them five or six times since, too.
"I know some of their players from Brighton and from playing with them in the past.
"It will be a tough game but if our players can replicate the level of performance that they've shown in the past few games then I'm confident of a positive result."