Boss on Pelly...
Competition for a place in the Town squad is already fierce yet manager John Still can’t wait to be able to select Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu.
The 22-year-old Ruddock hasn’t started a League 2 game for almost 12 months and has been restricted to just 11 appearances in Town colours since last October - including three starts in cup competition this term.
However, now having overcome a multitude of niggling injuries – the latest a dead leg – Still has admitted it won’t be long before the West Ham man is a regular feature in the Hatters squad.
"Pelly Ruddock is getting stronger and stronger in training," the boss said at his Thursday press conference.
"I think Pelly has amazing pace and power and strength which can take him past people, he can be unstoppable at times.
"He is one player I would like to get back in, his pace and his power and his strength, is game-changing.
"We brought him on last year at Cambridge, he came on and won a penalty, and just purely through his pace and power, he can go past two or three players in a flash."
Still admitted he thought about playing him against York last weekend, but the boss is happy to remain patient with the former West Ham man.
"He had a really difficult time last year, we’ve gone steady with him this year," said Still.
"He played in the reserve team game the other day, we put him on the bench against York and I would possibly have used him, but we changed our system because they were defending so deep that we went with wing-backs. Otherwise, I think I might have brought him on.
"His hamstring has done him a favour, it didn’t do us particularly a favour but he had a problem there that wasn’t just his hamstring."