Summer signing eager to be a team player with Luton during 'frustrating' spell out of the Hatters XI

Despite not featuring as much as he would have liked since moving to Kenilworth Road in the summer, Ryan Giles is determined to be a team player in the Hatters’ efforts to stay in the Premier League this term.

The 23-year-old had been snapped up from fellow top flight side Wolverhampton Wanderers for what is believed to be a club record fee for Luton of around £5m.

Having started the first three matches, defeats to Brighton, Chelsea and West Ham, Giles then saw his game time severely limited, with just five outings from the bench, as Alfie Doughty starred when preferred to the new addition.

During the 3-1 defeat at Brentford recently, the ex-Middlesbrough loan star wasn’t even brought on in the left wingback berth following a defensive reshuffle, manager Rob Edwards stating he saw his role as more of a winger.

However, with Issa Kabore ineligible against his parent club Manchester City on Sunday, Giles was back in from the starting line-up in that very position for the 2-1 defeat, playing 84 minutes and on his start to life in Bedfordshire, he said: “Ultimately, I knew coming here in the summer that there’s good competition here.

"Alf’s a phenomenal player, he’s really stepped up. Don’t get me wrong it’s been frustrating for me obviously, but in the three months or whatever it's been, my job has been to keep supporting the team as best I can.

"It’s a team effort to keep this club in the Premier League, it’s not about individuals, so whether it’s on the bench or on the pitch I’ll always try and play my part. We know how important this next block of games are leading up to Christmas, so we have to stick together as a group, keep going and from an individual perspective, whatever the gaffer says I’ll try to play my part.”

Having pushed Arsenal within seconds of grabbing a deserved point when beaten 4-3 on Tuesday night, Luton had dreamt of a famous win against Pep Guardiola’s champions at the weekend, leading 1-0 at half time through Elijah Adebayo’s imposing header.

However, Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish netted in the second period to bring the Hatters back down to earth, although Giles, who was replaced late on by Tahith Chong, felt it had been a valiant effort throughout the 90 minutes, continuing: “I thought the boys did well, it was a great shift against arguably the best team in the world in my opinion. We're obviously disappointed with the result, we want to get points on the board, but I think we can be proud.

“I think they could feel it, we were piling pressure on in the last few minutes, we just fell a bit short at the end, but the effort the boys put in has been phenomenal. To go toe-to-toe against the best team in Europe, winning the treble last year, I think we can be really proud of ourselves.”

Although keeper Thomas Kaminski was called on at times, making wonderful stops from Phil Foden and Ruben Dias, it wasn't quite the bombardment that many inside Kenilworth Road would have expected, as despite City dominating possession, Luton’s back-line did excellently to keep them at bay for long spells.

Giles added: “We knew that would be the case, they’re really good when it comes to playing out, finding the pockets, they do it really effectively and they do it to all teams in the Premier League, so we knew that we wouldn't have the ball as such.

"It was about staying resilient and keeping it tight. Thomas has made some excellent saves again which he has done all season, he’s been brilliant so far. We have to see if we can protect him a little bit more, that would be amazing, but he’s there to get us out of trouble when we need it.

"To get the goal at half time was a boost, we discussed at half time that we need to come out and really start strong second half, I thought we did that, we were just a bit unlucky. We fell a bit short, but we kick on and keep going.”