Luton striker Morris frustrated his record-equalling goal counted for nothing against Villa

​​​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.

​With 72 minutes gone at Kenilworth Road, Town’s players and supporters were fully believing an equaliser was on the cards as after a disappointing first half display, midfielder Tahith Chong had pulled one back moments earlier, turning in from close range after Reece Burke’s header had been cleared off the line, Morris doing superbly to keep the attack alive.

Picked out by Alfie Doughty's excellent free kick at the back post, the striker then executed a terrific volley beyond Emiliano Martinez and into the bottom corner, almost a carbon copy of the goal he scored against Everton at Goodison Park back in September, to become the first Hatters player to net in three successive home top flight matches since Iain Dowie in 1990 and take him one behind Elijah Adebayo in the scoring charts.

Morris sent another towering downward header from Jordan Clark’s first time cross into the arms of the Villa’s Argentinian World Cup winner but rather than see his earlier goal earn Town a crucial point in their battle to stay up, it counted for nothing in the end bar a personal milestone as Lucas Digne headed home in the final minute to make it 3-2 to the visitors.

On his own effort, the striker, who had only bagged just twice in his opening 19 top flight outings ahead of this current red-hot streak, said: “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 really disappointed as it’s another occasion of the performance being there, but us not coming away with any points.

“First half wasn’t really us, we were losing too many duels, we weren’t really at the races and second half it was like the switch flicked and that was us performance-wise, but it’s disappointing not to come away with any points. Set-plays is a strength of ours, we need to keep that going, but I’m just going to keep working hard, keep the team positive. It's a humble hard-working group, that’s what we do, and that’s what’s going to get us out of this fight.”

The Luton forward was lining up against another striker who has come through the leagues in Ollie Watkins, Villa’s in-form frontman up to 22 for the season in all competitions with his first half brace and now surely heading to the Euros with England. He continued: “He’s a top quality player but what else do you expect at this level? We’ve just got to make sure that we switch on and we’re protecting our goal a bit better. It’s similar to the way I’ve come up, it’s admirable. He’s seen every level, he’s done it all and now he’s playing at the big time, so it’s good.”

Morris will now look to make it six in eight matches this weekend when Town head to Crystal Palace, where there is a chance he could be joined by strike partner Adebayo at Selhurst Park, who has missed the last four games with a hamstring injury. He added: “Maybe, it’s hard to tell, we’ve got a lot of injuries at the moment. I try not to get too bogged down on it, we just control the controllables. He’s doing well, we don’t want to take any chances with a hamstring, it can get a lot worse, but he’ll hopefully be back as soon as possible.”