Luton's on-loan Hull midfielder is 'loving' life at Kenilworth Road
Palmer makes it three from three against Exeter
Luton’s on-loan Hull City midfielder Kasey Palmer insists he is ‘loving’ his time with the Hatters so far after scoring for a third successive game on Tuesday night.
The 29-year-old has certainly been a hit with supporters ever since his move from the Tigers back in January and was saluting them once more when heading home Liam Walsh’s corner in midweek to break the deadlock against Exeter City, the first of what turned into a 3-2 success for the hosts, following up goals in the fixtures with Wycombe Wanderers and Doncaster Rovers, the first time he has ever managed such a feat during his near 10-year professional career.
When finding the net, Palmer has treated those roaring him on to a number of celebrations, including hinting that he would be happy to sign for the club on a permanent basis at the end of the season when scoring at Doncaster, something he repeated at Kenilworth Road as well. Town chief Jack Wilshere has intimated he would love to have the experienced midfielder in his squad again next term, and although there has been nothing said from the ex-Coventry player yet publicly about returning, it’s clear he is enjoying being in Bedfordshire so far.
Speaking to the club’s official website about his time in a Luton shirt, he said: “I feel comfortable, I’m happy, I’m driving into training happy every day. I’m enjoying it and it's showing on the pitch I think so it's all good. I’m enjoying it, I’m loving it, I think the fans can see that I’m enjoying it, hopefully I’m impressing them and we'll see what happens.”
Having scored in stunning fashion at Doncaster, magnificently half-volleying into the bottom corner from just outside the box to open his account for the Hatters, Palmer has since been the beneficiary of Luton’s superb set-piece delivery during the last two matches, with a powerful header into the top corner at Adams Park to double Town’s lead against Wycombe and then nodding in a downward header to open the scoring in Tuesday night's success.
The Jamaican international admitted an element of surprise regarding his last two goals, continuing: “It was nice, especially to score at home. The other two have been away, so it was a really good feeling. I don't know where that's come from to be fair, but I’ll take it, two headers in a row, so that's all good. It's something that since I’ve been here, we've worked on at the training ground quite a lot and now it seems to be coming into the game. It's a real positive that we can be a set-piece threat, on top of the stuff that we do on the ball.”
Although Luton came under pressure in the first half in particular on Tuesday, they still managed to lead 3-1 at the break, Jordan Clark on target with his 11th of the season from the penalty spot and then Hakeem Odoffin stretching to prod home his first goal for the club as well. With Palmer starting 11 out of 12 league matches since joining, he was taken off once more during the second period, this time, with 14 minutes remaining, and having been impressed by the way in which the Grecians went about things, knows he will have to dig deep to go again when Town host Stockport County, who are a leading contender to make the play-offs, this weekend.
He added: “I thought they (Exeter) were very good. They surprised me personally, I didn't expect them to be as good on the ball. We struggled with the press a little bit at times, but then we got it right more in the second half, so credit to them. They were good, but we just needed to win. It was all about three points and trying to get as close to the play-offs as possible and we did that. We’ve got a couple of days then it’s an early kick off on Saturday, so the games just keep on coming which is good because as a player, you don't want to keep training, you’d rather play the matches but it’s a lot on the legs. We just need to recover and then go again on Saturday.”