Luton's on-loan Whites defender enjoying his first taste of Kenilworth Road
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On-loan Town defender Cody Drameh thoroughly enjoyed a first taste of life at Kenilworth Road after experiencing his new home until the end of the season at least, for the first time recently.
The 21-year-old joined on loan from Premier League side Leeds United during the transfer window and after being ineligible to face Grimsby in the FA Cup, was straight into action for the 1-0 win over Cardiff in just over a week ago.
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Hide AdHe kept his place as Stoke were seen off 1-0 in the following game, a match that left Potters boss Alex Neil bemoaning the size of the pitch and the fact he felt his side had to kick ‘uphill’ to begin with.
However, Drameh was more than happy with his new surroundings, saying: “The crowd is on top of me and I really like it, as I can feed off the crowd’s energy.
“It’s quite an old fashioned stadium, there’s not too many stadiums left like this in football so I kind of like that.
“I was just feeding off their enthusiasm, they encourage me a lot.
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Hide Ad“They’re close to us so we can hear them, a lot of the time they’re trying to encourage me and I appreciate that.
“It was ‘come on, take on your man, we believe in you,’ so it’s just really positive energy.”
Drameh, who was named Cardiff’s Young Player of the Season and Player of the Season after a spell on loan in Wales last term despite again only arriving in January, has made a similarly good start to life at Luton.
Supporters are already hugely enthused by what they have seen in his first two outings, social media was awash with a number of positive messages, as Drameh was pleased to make such an immediate impact.
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Hide AdHe continued: “It's a very nice feeling, it’s not been a slow start, I can hit the ground running and hopefully just keep it up.
“It's been a good settling in period, to get two wins, still up there in the table, it’s a nice feeling.
“It's been very good and the crowd have been excellent as well.
"It's been nice playing here, everyone's made me feel welcome, so it's been easy to settle in.”
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Hide AdWith three Luton full backs heading to the Premier League recently in James Justin, Jack Stacey and most recently James Bree, Drameh knows the club has a strong tradition in that position.
He hopes to carry that on too, saying: “There’s a lot of great right backs and I’m just looking to replicate that and follow in their path, hopefully carve out a path for myself as well.”
The defender appears to already have forged a good understanding with Reece Burke, who played as the right sided centre half in both matches so far.
The pair have both got forward well to send in a number of dangerous crosses, while not neglecting their defensive duties either, as Drameh said: “It’s just a lot of communication and freedom in our play.
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Hide Ad“You see he bombs forward quite a lot, so I’m just there for cover and vice versa.
"It’s a good link up and hopefully we can keep it going.
“We’ve got two big men up top, so it’s just try to feed them and get up and down as well, do my defensive work, try to do a bit of both.”
With Burke already having scored from long range this season, Amari’i Bell was the latest to try his luck at the weekend, seeing a 35-yarder saved by Potters keeper Matija Sarkic.
Having scored in the Checkatrade Trophy for Leeds U21s at Tranmere back in August, Drameh will have a go at finding the net in Luton colours, saying: “Hopefully, if the opportunity comes, I'm not afraid to pull the trigger.
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Hide Ad“We’ll see in the coming games, hopefully I can get one of those.
“We would have liked to score more goals, kill the game off and not have that, I wouldn't say nervous feeling, but that feeling at the end of the game of, ‘something could happen here.’
"I thought we were very solid, worked hard, didn't see them scoring, so that was credit to us.”
Luton now head to Coventry tomorrow and having missed Tuesday night’s FA Cup exit to the Mariners, Drameh wants to make it three league wins in a row for himself and four for the club, adding: “The manager just said to us at the end of the game, we’ve got a winning formula, we don’t need to break it.
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Hide Ad"We’ve got to keep doing the right things, keep working hard and keep grinding out results.
“The next game is against Coventry, so I'm looking forward to that.
“It’s very physical, the games come thick and fast, you’ve got to be ready for it, so I know the Championship very well.”