Ross Barkley has backed Albert Sambi Lokonga to get even better after he formed a formidable fledgling partnership with the Arsenal loanee in a dominant 1-0 win over Newcastle United.
The Belgian and the Liverpudlian bossed the midfield area in arguably the most complete Hatters performance at home this term.
Barkley claimed an assist for Andros Townsend’s winner against his old club, went close with a thunderbolt that crashed off the bar and nearly made it a brace of assists, but Elijah Adebayo’s shot was saved.
The 30-year-old has been getting back to his best form from his Everton days when he broke through as a teenager, but he’s had little chance to play with Lokonga who suffered a serious hamstring injury during his second appearance for Luton.
But the 24-year-old returned in a substitute cameo in the defeat to champions Manchester City and then started at Bournemouth last week, though the game was abandoned after the hour due to Town captain Tom Lockyer’s cardiac arrest.
But against Newcastle he played 80 minutes and helped give the Hatters control and a calmness.
Barkley said of Lokonga: “He’s got that quality. He’ll take the ball under a bit of pressure, find me and we’ll link up, try to help defensively and going forwards.
“For me, it’s another relationship that we need to build because I’ve played with Pelly (Ruddock Mpanzu) and Marvelous (Nakamba) and now Sambi, so it’s building a new relationship with different players.
“But all players provide different strengths. Now, with Sambi I feel like we blend well. It’s a good mixture, so he’s had two games on the trot now. He’s just finding his fitness.
“It took me a couple of games to find my rhythm, so he’ll get better.”
The victory – Town’s third in the Premier League – add a brighter note to a week in which all the focus was on Lockyer’s health recovery.
Barkley revealed that the skipper had already been in touch with the team immediately after the final whistle confirmed three points and a first clean sheet of the campaign.
“(It’s) a good end to a difficult week,” said the midfielder, adding: “Hard to start with but it gave us extra motivation to win the game for Tom today, especially, so it was a good moment.
“Tom put a message in the group chat and said he was proud of the lads today. It was a happy moment.
“He’s had surgery so he’s just been recovering so (we’re) not bombarding him with messages, just more saying we’re just glad he’s on the mend and he’s getting better.”
Boss Rob Edwards had asked his team to embody the spirit of Lockyer for the game and Barkley said of the collective effort: “Grit, determination, passion, a never-say-die attitude and that’s what it was. The manager just said, ‘go out and perform in the way that Locks has performed over the years for the club’. So, we did do that for him.
“We stayed solid, creating chances and we were unfortunate with a few chances but we came away with the win.
“We’ve got a couple of big games coming up so hopefully that gives us confidence to get two or three wins on the bounce, hopefully.”
One of those chances was Barkley’s long-range rocket that had the woodwork quaking for some time after.
He said: “It would’ve been a great goal. It was unfortunate, but it’s things that we’re working on in training so hopefully it pays off in games coming.”
