Hatters boss believes former Calgary striker Pepple will benefit from his return to Luton following tough Grimsby loan spell

Town boss Rob Edwards believes that a spell training with the Hatters at the Brache will be of huge benefit to returning striker Aribim Pepple.

The 20-year-old had been on a season’s long loan with League Two side Grimsby Town, only to find the deal cut short recently after failing to score in his 15 appearances, with just one league start, as he came back to Luton.

Signed by previous manager Nathan Jones in the summer, it was the first chance that Edwards had been able to run the rule over the forward, as when asked how he has been getting on, he said: “He’s been training with us, he’s had a few days with us now, we’ve still got to build his fitness up a little bit more, but he’s a lovely lad.

"Physically he looks fantastic and he’s done all right in the training in the last couple of days.

"We’ll get to work with him and get to know him and try to keep working with him to improve Bim, as being around our group of players for him, it’s going to benefit him.”

Pepple had signed for Luton in August after an impressive start to the campaign at Canadian Premier League side Cavalry FC, where he broke the league’s record for the longest goalscoring streak, netting in five consecutive league matches, bagging six times in seven games overall.

On arriving at Kenilworth Road, he was immediately loaned to the Mariners, but even though it didn’t work out as either he or the club would have wanted, Edwards feels there will be positives to take, saying: “No loan is a bad loan as even if you don’t play as much as you want to, it’s a really good experience.

"You’ve got think, ‘okay, why didn’t it work how I wanted it to?’ And try and learn from that.

"You’re coming over from a foreign country and then quite quickly go to another place on loan, it’s quite a lot to handle.

"It’ll probably be nice to be settled for a little bit now and work with a consistent group and get to know his team-mates.”

Pepple will now join a group of strikers at Luton who have all hit form in recent weeks, Carlton Morris up to 11 for the season, with Elijah Adebayo, Harry Cornick and Cauley Woodrow all on the scoresheet too.

It means he will have to bide his time for any opportunity, as Edwards continued: “Physically he’s good, he can finish, but we’ve got some good players in that area of the pitch at the moment.

"He’s not one we want to put too much pressure on at the moment, it will be good to have him around the training group at the moment and see how he progresses.”

There is every chance that Pepple could have another opportunity to prove himself out on loan again though, with Edwards adding: “I think we can (send him out) as he’s only played for one club, so potentially.

"But again I want to make sure that its got to be right for him.

"Perhaps, I’m not saying this is the right thing, but perhaps the right thing for him will be staying within the group and training with us and us being able to work with him and trying to help him improve here.

"We’ll see, once we’ve seen him around for a couple of weeks, we’ll gauge that, work on that together with him.”