If Elijah Adebayo scores against Bournemouth today he’ll be the first Luton player to score in three consecutive top-flight games since Mick Harford, 31 years ago, with boss Rob Edwards saying the club legend is a big influence the current crop of strikers.
His header against Manchester City on Sunday to take Adebayo’s tally to four for in this first-ever season in the Premier League, moving ahead of Carlton Morris as Town’s top marksman, having taken his place in the starting XI. That followed a header against Arsenal and the trip to the Vitality Stadium offers up the chance to match a record older than the 25-year-old himself.
Harford, now Luton’s chief recruitment officer, was part of the team that bought Adebayo from League Two Walsall in February 2021.
Back in his playing days, he netted against Oldham, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United in the tail end of the 1991/92 season a feat yet to be matched.
“It’s always Mick!” Edwards joked, adding: “He has got every record going. He just smiles. He just knows. Mick’s really influential around the place. When he speaks people listen.
“Everybody respects him and loves him and knows what he represents. But he’s got brilliant insight as well and he can really get into those strikers’ minds. I can’t, I was a defender that headed and kicked it, so Mick can really tap into that.
“Sometimes, he might only need to say one little thing and it can really land. He’s really influential and he might go two weeks without having to say anything, but he comes into every meeting and I’ve got no problem with him just grabbing a couple of people and saying, ‘what do you think about this?’ Or just taking someone off for a walk and having a chat.
“He’s really experienced and he just knows what the right thing to do is.”
Adebayo must be heeding the advice because he’s scored from each of the four shots he’s had this term, a clinical return which also highlights the scarcity of chances for Town in the Premier League.
“Let’s hope he can get three, that’ll be great,” said Edwards of the trip to in-form Bournemouth.
“I think he’ll be very confident. It’s his all-round game that’s been very pleasing for us as well. I always talk about that, what else he’s given.
“Carlton always gives us that, Browny (Jacob Brown) and you look at Andros (Townsend), Chongy (Tahith Chong), Chieo (Chiedozie Ogbene), it’s the running he (Adebayo) does. It’s not just what they do with the ball. I know that gets the headlines, goals and assists, dribbles and all that sort of stuff.
“The pressing is what’s important for us because we’re not a team that’s going to dominate with the ball. We want to try to grow, evolve and be better with the ball, which we’re doing, but work-rate, out of possession, is key.
“Also, I think his ball retention has been really good as well. That’s been a big focus with him, so I’ve been delighted with what he’s delivered in the last couple of games.”
After six games on the bench, following a horror miss against Tottenham, Adebayo came back into he starting line-up to face Arsenal, after Morris had “ran his socks off” in the 3-1 defeat at Brentford a few days before.
Edwards said of the striker’s return to the starting line-up: “I felt, against Arsenal, we were going to really need freshness, legs and people that we knew were going to be able to go hard for at least an hour anyway.
“That’s how it went and then we were able to make some changes the other way around.
“I suppose, since we’ve slightly tweaked the shape and Carlton’s played there on his own, and he Eli’s played more of a supporting role. Carlton’s worked hard and Eli’s come on.
“It was a bit of a flip around and it’s worked well in the last couple of games. I love the fact that it’s not direct competition between the two of them because they can play together. We made the change against City and the two of them played together (late on), which they’ve done for a long time.
“But it is good when you’ve got people in good form that you trust, especially at that end of the pitch. It gives me some confidence.”
In contrast, Morris, 28 today, has struggled for chances and consequently goals, and he hasn’t scored since the win at Everton in September, Town’s first victory of the season.
“It’s been difficult,” said Edwards of the man that netted a career-best 20 goals on the way to promotion last term.
“That’s no slight on him whatsoever. I look at that Liverpool game and that was one of the best number nine performances that I’ve seen for a player in his shirt, since I’ve been here anyway.
“I thought Carlton was outstanding. His ball retention was incredible, his work-rate, his understanding of what we were trying to do and his link up.
“The amount of things that went into him that stuck, he brought people in to allow us to have that threat and that counter-attack.
“Even in the last couple of weeks we’ve tried to be really brave and play higher up. Because teams will force you back, there’s such a long way where he might give us that first pass and retain it, but then there’s 80 yards to make up, get in the box and to get into goalscoring positions.
“What he gives us, Carlton, with and without the ball, that can sometimes outweigh the goals as well. Clearly, we want people to be able to score and create the chances, but at this level it’s difficult.
“It’s brilliant if your goalscorers are scoring but we do want more from them than just goals and it’s really important to stress that.”
