Town boss Kieran McKenna praised the importance of Sone Aluko on the Blues dressing room, despite the forward finding game time limited so far this season.

Aluko has largely been utilised as a role model and mentor to the younger members of the squad in recent months and has regularly been seen watching matches with the club analysts in the stands.

However, despite the 34-year-old’s lack of match minutes, McKenna is delighted with the impact he is having on the culture and standards that are set in the squad.

Asked if Aluko is an important figure, McKenna said: “Very much so and he has been in my time here. People talk about our record of coming from behind and how we can often bring people into the team and they seem to have a good understanding of their roles and things that are noticeable on the pitch.

“As I've said before, a big part of that is the culture in your group that you have here day-to-day.

“Sone is a massive part of that culture and day-to-day working in how he trains as a player first and foremost, and how he looks after himself and just as importantly is his really high levels of empathy and emotional intelligence and the way that he connects with lots of different people in the dressing room in different ways.

“He's really important to us and we're delighted with the impact he's having behind the scenes here.”

Aluko has been limited to just two minutes of league action so far this season, but has featured in all five domestic cup matches to date and seems likely to play a part in this weekend’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Maidstone United.

“He's done well in the games he's played this year as well,” McKenna said. “He scored a good goal against Bristol Rovers earlier in the cup and I thought he was one of our better players against Fulham in his last start and he's had some good impacts off the bench as well.

“We're happy with the contribution he's making both as a player when we need him to produce minutes and certainly day-to-day as a senior player here.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Lukeybluey added 16:52 - Jan 26 Top man! Hopefully he will have a big part to play behind the scenes as a coach of some sort, once he decides to hang up his boots...
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Radlett_blue added 18:25 - Jan 26 I didn't understand why we gave Aluko a new playing contract and I don't understand it any more now. Still, I assume McKenna knows more than I do.
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Wallingford_Boy added 07:40 - Jan 27 Radlett_blue - I think that’s a fairly safe assumption to make!
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