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McCarthy Delighted Downes Has Made Strong Start at Luton - Ipswich Town News

Blues boss Mick McCarthy is delighted on-loan midfielder Flynn Downes has made a strong start to his half-season spell with League Two leaders Luton Town.

Downes has received rave reviews from both Hatters fans and manager Nathan Jones for his early performances having played three times since moving to Kenilworth Road on deadline day.

"He’s been put out for that reason,” McCarthy said. "I was delighted with him as he was when he first started but then having got his injury and not got back in, so it was just wise to send him out, especially to somebody like Nathan Jones at Luton, who is a good coach.

"They’re doing well, he could end up with a medal with the number of games he could play. But he’ll just great experience playing regularly, it’s great for him.”

🕺🏻 There was some fancy footwork on show on Tuesday night at the Kenny, not least from on-loan @Official_ITFC midfielder Flynn Downes who sent 3️⃣ Crawley players for a 🍔 early on! #COYH pic.twitter.com/yQrbrHmhk0

— Luton Town FC (@LutonTown) February 16, 2018

McCarthy says Downes can’t be recalled even if he continues his form and Luton confirm their title with a number of weeks remaining.

"We can’t do it, it’s only if you loan them to the National League and they go out on a youth loan that you can bring them back,” he explained. "And even then they can’t be involved in first-team football.

"So he’s there for the rest of the season and it doesn’t matter where he’s playing his football, if he plays to the end of the season, he can go away and have a good summer and be ready to come back for pre-season.”

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