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Defender Tom Holmes is ‘loving’ his start to life at Luton after returning to Kenilworth Road on a full-time basis this season.

The 24-year-old was signed by the Hatters from League One Reading last January, although headed straight back to the Madejski Stadium for the remainder of the campaign, injury restricting him to just four further appearances. With Town being relegated from Premier League in May, Holmes was back in for training during the latter stages of the campaign, but he has now started back full time with his new team-mates, catching the eye of Hatters chief Rob Edwards since arriving.

Asked just how he is settling in, speaking to Luton’s official website, Holmes said: “I’m loving it, I’m loving it to be honest. I love the environment, I love the culture that’s been created here at Luton. I’m grateful to come into it every day and give the best version of myself. From the minute that I trained at the end of last season I could see that hard work was at the core of everything that’s here at Luton, so it’s a given.”

Holmes didn’t feature in the opening friendly win over Stevenage, but did get 45 minutes when Luton were beaten 2-1 by AGF last Saturday. He then got the full game as Town defeated Ukrainian Premier League side Ruhk Lviv 1-0 on Tuesday afternoon and on the contest, he continued: “It was a good win, especially off the back of the last one, a hot day but a good day’s work. It was quite demanding in the first half especially as the game was quite stretched, but I think second half we got a bit more control. A bit back and forth at the end, when we had possession it was all right, but you could definitely feel the heat.”

Town now have two more days training at their warm-weather training camp before taking on Turkish side Göztepe in their final pre-season at the weekend, as on his experience out there, Holmes added: “Slovenia is unbelievable. I know a few of the lads have been here a few times now so there were a few grumblings about coming again, there were mixed reviews, I’ve loved it so far, it’s definitely a bit of me.”