Luton forward Carlton Morris couldn’t hide the frustration that his eighth Premier League goal of the season and fifth in seven games didn’t earn the Hatters more than just another string of plaudits for a valiant display against Aston Villa on Saturday.
After a lacklustre first half performance, Town’s players and supporters were certain that an equaliser was imminent with just 72 minutes remaining at Kenilworth Road. Tahith Chong, a midfielder, had pulled one back moments earlier, finishing from close range after Reece Burke’s header had been cleared off the line, with Morris performing admirably to maintain the attack.
Following an excellent free kick by Alfie Doughty at the back post, the striker scored a fantastic volley into the bottom corner of the goal to become the first Hatters player to score in three straight home top flight matches since Iain Dowie in 1990. He is now one goal behind Elijah Adebayo in the scoring charts. The goal was nearly a carbon copy of the one he scored against Everton at Goodison Park back in September.
Morris scored another spectacular header into the arms of the Argentine World Cup winner for Villa with a header from Jordan Clark’s first-time cross, but his earlier goal did not matter in the end, save for a personal best when Lucas Digne scored a header in the dying minute to give the visitors a 3-2 lead.
The striker, who came into this current hot streak having only scored twice in his first 19 Premier League games, said of his own work: “That’s my main job as a forward, creating goals and scoring them, but it’s extremely frustrating when it doesn’t follow with a result.” I’m very dissatisfied since we didn’t win any points, which is the second time the performance has been there.
“It’s disappointing not to come away with any points, but the second half was like a switch flicking, and that was us performance-wise. First half, we were losing too many duels, and we weren’t really at the races.” We should continue using set-plays as one of our strengths, but I’m merely
The Luton attacker was facing up against another striker who has risen through the ranks, Villa’s in-form forward Ollie Watkins, who has scored a brace in the first half of the season and is now undoubtedly playing for England in the Euros. Watkins is 22 goals this season across all competitions. “He’s a top-notch player, but at this level, what else do you expect?” he said. All we need to do is make sure we turn on and be a little more vigilant about defending our objective. It’s commendable that it resembles how I came to be. It’s fantastic that he’s experienced every level and is now competing at the highest level.
Morris will now try to make it six goals in eight games this coming Saturday when Town travels to Crystal Palace. Adebayo, Morris’ striking partner, may accompany him at Selhurst Park, although he has missed the previous four games due to a hamstring injury. “Maybe, it’s hard to tell, we’ve got a lot of injuries right now,” he continued. We only control the things that we can control, so I try not to get too caught up in it. He’s healing nicely, but we don’t want to take any chances because a hamstring strain might worsen. Hopefully, he’ll be back as soon as possible.
Leave a Reply