Luton striker left with a feeling of 'devastation' as Town are destined to be relegated

​Luton striker Carlton Morris was left with a feeling of sheer ‘devastation’ after the Hatters’ relegation back to the Championship was all but confirmed on Saturday.

Needing a positive result to give themselves any chance of taking the fight to stay up into the final day, the Hatters had led at the break through Sambi Lokonga’s first goal for the club on just six minutes. However, Town weren’t able to hold on to that advantage in the second period, conceding three times to send them back to the second tier, barring a victory over Fulham and impossible 12 goal swing on Saturday.

Giving his immediate feelings afterwards, Morris said: “We're not naive enough to know what it looks like, that's not to say we won't give it 100 percent still next week, but I’d say it was devastation as I can’t explain to you how much myself, the staff, the players, wanted to give back to the fans more and be in a higher league position. If that’s not to be then so be it, we can walk away from this season with absolutely zero regrets as we've left it all out there every single week.

"A lot of people had us down by Christmas at the start of the year. I try not to read into any of that stuff too much but I think we've given a good account of ourselves at times. We’ve been in a lot of high scoring games, been entertaining at times and that's all I can ask for, leave it all out there every game, give our fans something to cheer about. I’m devastated it doesn’t look like we're going to get it over the line, but there’s a serious element of proudness there as well.”

Following the final whistle, an emotional Morris and the rest of his team-mates stood for over 10 minutes in front of their supporters who had made the trip to the London Stadium, receiving yet another in a long line of wonderful ovations, as they gave those in the Luton end a number of souvenirs, including shirts and goalkeeper gloves.

The forward, who has score 10 goals in his maiden season at this level, continued: “​It was emotional scenes at the end as our thousands of fans travelling home and away have given us so much support and that was just the players showing how grateful we are for it. There hasn't been a second this season where they've turned on us.

"It’s only football, but this is the lives of some people. It makes people happy, it changes some people’s mental health and when you put it like that I think I can walk off the pitch being proud to be honest. I was sat in bed last night and watched a 10-minute video that Wolves put out about mental health awareness and seeing how much the football means to the fans and how much we do impact people’s lives.

"It made me think about that straight away and at the end of game going over to our fans, we stood there for 10 minutes, the lads giving out shirts, them clapping and screaming for us, it does touch a nerve, because it puts things into perspective. These guys work all week to come and watch us kick a football about, so I can be happy and be proud of myself and my team-mates and know that this club is moving in the right direction.”

For the fifth time this season, the Hatters were unable to hold on to a half time lead given to them by Lokonga’s maiden goal in English football, the on-loan Arsenal midfielder heading home Alfie Doughty’s pinpoint cross. Hopes were high at the interval that Town might be able to at least get the positive result required to make sure there was something on this weekend’s clash, but as against Manchester City, Liverpool, AFC Bournemouth and Spurs, they were undone by the talent on display from their opponents in that second period, James Ward-Prowse, Tomas Soucek and George Earthy all finding the net.

Morris, who has had the captain’s armband ever since Tom Lockyer’s cardiac arrest back in December, added: “We've done that a lot this season, took the lead in games, but this is the best league in the world for a reason. There's serious, serious quality in this division and they’re tough to keep out at times, but we've been as competitive as we possibly can be.

"The boys, I’m incredibly proud to have led them out in this back end of the season. As a footballer going out there knowing you’ve got 10 boys behind you and the boys that come on that are going to have your back no matter what, it’s another thing we can take from this season.”