Luton striker determined to change away form that has 'snowballed' out of control

Striker Carlton Morris insists Luton’s players will be leaving no stone unturned in their bid to change the away form that has drastically ‘snowballed’ out of control in recent months.

After the Hatters began the campaign by taking four points from a possible nine on the road with a 1-0 defeat at Preston North End, goalless draw with Portsmouth and a 1-0 victory over Millwall at the Den, since then it has been a case of absolutely diddly squat when Luton have ventured out on the road. Monday night’s 2-1 loss at QPR was a 10th straight reverse as they are now closing in equalling an unwanted club record of 13 defeats in a row outside of Bedfordshire, something they have achieved twice, once in the 1898-99 season and then again in the 1927-28 campaign.

Discussing how they will be aiming to turn around the terrible sequence of results, Morris said: “We’ve got too much for that, it’s just got carried away. It’s been like a domino effect and it has snowballed, but we’re going to be working so diligently, we’ll get heads down and sort this out.

"It’s tough. There’s a knack to winning games at this level especially, so honestly I think it will be like a London bus, once we find one, build that confidence again it will be like building our foundation from the start in terms of our away from home performances. The performances have been there in spells, it’s about getting that result and building on that, but we need to get that first one.”

Although Luton once more came out on the wrong side of the outcome on Monday evening, there were actually some positives to take from those watching on both at the ground and on Sky Sports. Defeats at Bristol City and Swansea City over the Christmas period where Town had just 11 shots at goal in both matches, was followed by 18 attempts in total at Loftus Road, although disappointingly only four were on target, one of them Mark McGuinness’s towering header that restored parity late in the first half.

The main worry was the ease in which Rangers also had efforts on goal, with 15 of their own, six on target, Michael Frey and Morgan Fox both finding the net. Town keeper Thomas Kaminski was called into action more than once as well, denying Jimmy Dunne in quite brilliant fashion, as the R’s also missed a number of chances too, Alfie Lloyd in particular culpable on more than one occasion.

Morris knows that going forward though, he and his team-mates need to improve in both areas of the pitch, continuing: “We’ve got to put it on us at the moment, there’s no excuses. We need to find a way to be better in both boxes as these games, the last three especially, they’ve been tight, could go either way and we’ve found ourselves on the wrong side of the result on each and every one of them.

"We’re working so hard every day at the training ground to try and right these wrongs, but clearly we need to keep grinding and grinding hard to set this away form straight as it’s nowhere near the level we’ve set ourselves. We’re playing some really nice stuff, we’ve got to take the positives from the game into the next few, but there’s a lot we need to learn from as well. We’ll take the positives as there was some nice free-flowing football, but when you’re on top on games at this level you have to score and we’re not doing that at the moment so you’ll get punished.”

The winner when it came though was harsh to take, Fox unwittingly deflecting Ilias Chair’s long range attempt beyond an unfortunate Kaminski who couldn’t recover in time, seeing the ball bobble over the line. Morris knew it was tough to take, adding: “That goal especially was bad luck for sure, but that’s not an excuse for the last 10 away games is it? It is an emotional sport, but I do think you have to think logically about it as well.

"We do have to take a lot of positives from a few spells that we had in the game, because we looked dangerous, we looked a threat, but on the other side of that, there’s a lot of things we need to tighten up on. We’ll watch the game back, watch the footage, go over it and tighten up on those things. You take the positives where you can and you work on the negatives, that’s how you become a better football team. We’ll build that foundation and become a better team away from home.”