Town chief explains why he decided to swap wingers for O's victory
Morris replaces Bramall in Town’s starting XI
Luton boss Jack Wilshere explained why he decided to bring in Shayden Morris for Cohen Bramall ahead of last night’s commanding 3-0 victory over Leyton Orient at Kenilworth Road.
There was some slight confusion when the teams were announced before kick-off with Bramall originally named on the teamsheet and Morris on the bench, but that was purely down to a communication error, with Wilshere always planning on making the one alteration from Boxing Day’s 4-0 thumping of Wycombe Wanderers.
Having started the last 10 league matches for the Hatters, scoring wonderful free kicks against Stockport County and Port Vale, then it was something of a surprise to see former Arsenal youngster Bramall not featuring from the first whistle, but having played a few days earlier and with another two matches coming up this week, away to Exeter City and Doncaster Rovers, then on his reasoning behind swapping the pair, Wilshere said: “It was to freshen him (Bramall) up and rest him.
"I think teams recently have been doing things to try and contain Cohen, so we thought we could mix it up a little bit, maybe give us more of a direct threat on the right hand side and more of a player who can come inside on the left hand side (Gideon Kodua). Cohen’s been excellent, so it was literally just to rest him.
"Also Shayden, he’s been knocking on my door and being hungry. I’ve challenged him to execute more and produce more, he did that against Wycombe and earned his opportunity and I thought he did really well. The challenge for him is can he sustain that and get fitter. Naturally he struggles probably around the 60 minute mark as he hasn’t played many games, so that’s the challenge for him.”
The move paid off in a first half that saw Luton change ends 3-0 to the good as after Kodua had netted with a rasping drive from 20 yards and Jordan Clark nonchalantly rolled in a penalty, it was Morris who added a third when he arrived at the back post to tap in once Kodua’s cross had been flicked on by Nahki Wells. The ex-Fleetwood winger was also scoring for the same successive game after his strike against the Chairboys, as he now has four goals in 16 outings since heading back to England a few months ago.
Although he was taken off just before the hour mark, with Bramall coming on, asked about his impact, Wilshere added: “We spoke before the game about when you have a really good performance and a convincing win, and then two days later, three days later you have to go again, you have to make sure you do the basics really well and whatever the basics are in your position.
"For me a basic for a winger is make sure you lock in the back post and Shayden did that. You see wingers who get four, five goals for free there, so I’m really happy with that. He had some nice play down the side as well, three good goals, three good moments and we managed to keep a clean sheet second half.”