Stoke City manager Michael O’Neill believes Jordan Cousins had earned his chance to impress against Luton Town on Tuesday night and praised the midfielder’s impact, as the Potters earned a 3-0 win.

Cousins, who arrived in the summer from Queens Park Rangers, had found himself frozen out of the first team picture under Nathan Jones having not made an appearance for the Potters in the Championship since August, with the likes of Joe Allen, Sam Clucas, Peter Etebo, Badou Ndiaye and Nick Powell all ahead of him in the pecking order.

O’Neill, though, following the Potters’ 2-1 defeat at Hull on Saturday decided to bring in Cousins and the 25-year-old repaid that faith with a strong performance where he demonstrated his ability in possession and his ability to offer more of a physical presence to Stoke’s midfield.

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Speaking to the media following Stoke’s 3-0 win against Luton, O’Neill suggested that Cousins’ attitude in training had seen him earn a place in the side and that he believes he took his opportunity, saying: "Yeah, Jordan’s a player who hadn’t played since August, possibly. When I came in, he’s a player who’s not been playing, so we had to make an assessment of a player, which is probably unfair of me, but the games have come so frequently, that for some of those players on the periphery we’ve not been able to assess them.

"But what Jordan has done is he’s trained extremely well. He played very well, albeit in a training game against Salford, but he showed the right attitude for a senior player and that has got him on the bench on Saturday and got him a start tonight.

"And I think he handled it given how long he’s been out of the team. He passed the ball well and gave us a bit of a presence in the middle of the pitch as well."

The Verdict

O’Neill will be delighted that his faith in Cousins was rewarded by an impressive performance from the midfielder, who perhaps for the first time since arriving at the Bet365 Stadium highlighted the qualities he can bring to the Potters’ midfield.

Cousins certainly appears to have been determined to take the chance to impress under a new manager, with the 25-year-old having a real point to prove having been almost a forgotten man since he made the move from QPR back in the summer.

The midfielder has probably earned the right to stay in the team for the weekend now and if he can maintain the level of performance he did against Luton, then he could well establish himself as an important player at the Bet365 Stadium during the rest of the campaign.