Bloomfield hopes new signing can help provide the missing ingredient to Luton's attack
Winger demonstrates his rapid pace against Barnet
Luton boss Matt Bloomfield believes new signing Shayden Morris gave an early demonstration of how he could provide what has been the missing ingredient to the Hatters’ attacking play this season.
The 23-year-old officially completed his move back to England from Scottish Premier League side Aberdeen on transfer deadline day, in enough time to be named on the bench for the Hatters’ Vertu Trophy group stage match against Barnet on Tuesday night. Brought on with just over 25 minutes remaining, he helped Luton, who had led 3-0 following a sparkling first half display, but drifted through the majority of the second period, regain the ascendancy they had let slip almost immediately.
The former Fleetwood youngster, who won the Scottish Cup with the Dons last term, quickly got the majority of the 3,000 crowd off their seats when instantly showing his blistering pace on the right hand side, knocking the ball past his man and then sprinting away to collect it, seeing his cross flash across goal. He then turned on the afterburners once more in the closing stages when Zack Nelson unfurled another inviting pass inside his full back, with Morris able to dash on to it, only to have his heels clipped inside the area for a penalty.
Morris then took the spotkick himself, confidently tucking it away by sending Bees keeper Owen Evans the wrong way, as discussing his impact, Bloomfield said: “Maybe we’ve been lacking that a little bit earlier in the season. We’ve been building up Cohen (Bramall), we’ve been building up Gideon (Kodua), now we’ve got Shayden to add to the group as well, alongside Milli (Alli). I thought he (Alli) had to carry a lot of the weight of the one v one moments earlier in the season, but now he’s got a few mates around him to help with that workload.
"We’re going to come up against some low blocks at times, we want to excite, we want players to be in those wide areas. I love watching wingers play as I could never do it, so I love watching how they do it. It just excites and people pay their money as they want to be excited and they want to enjoy watching their football team. Players like Shayden, Gids, Milli, they do excite, so we’re really pleased to add him to the group.”
Discussing his first run-out in a Luton shirt along with his undoubted blistering pace that will be a huge asset for the Hatters, Morris himself told BBC Three Counties Radio: “I don't think it gets much better than that to be honest. I felt very welcome, I was welcomed in by the players, the staff at the training ground and I think I got a good bit of minutes to come on and just happy to show what I can do and to hit the back of the net is always the best feeling.
"As I said in my interview I want to excite the fans. I've been away in Scotland for a while and I know that when people watch me live, it's very exciting. I was very determined to show my pace. I always liked to do a bit of racing and so far I've never really lost a race with my friends or on sports day, but I’ve just kind of been playing football and always been fast. Credit to my team-mates as I knew that whenever they look up they want to play forward, so I just need to take off and thankfully I got across him and won the penalty.”
Having won the spotkick, then Morris was clearly desperate to take it as well and get off the mark straight away for his new club, saying: “As soon as we won it, I saw Millsy. He went to pick up the ball and I just said ‘please,’ so I have to thank him a lot for giving me the opportunity to score on my debut. I'm not sure if he’ll give me any more now, but hopefully.”
Morris had to slot into the right wingback role for the latter stages against the Bees too, as although it’s not a position he is particularly accustomed to playing in his career to date, he is more than happy to give it a go, adding: “It’s just really good to be back on the pitch. Playing wingback is something I’m not too used to but I’m happy to do it for the team and I’m just happy to be learning. Normally I play on the right wing, I can do a shift on the left as well. If the gaffer wants to put me there (wingback), I'm happy to do it, but I am a winger so you will be seeing a lot of attacking side from me.”