Luke Berry says he’s been working on finishing and his trademark late runs into the box, which has seen him bag five games in eight appearances this term.
Injury in October curtailed his goalscoring form, but the midfielder returned on Sunday to cap off a 4-0 FA Cup victory over League Two Harrogate.
That set up a fourth round tie at Berry’s old club Cambridge United, who Boss Nathan Jones signed him from in 2017, because he was the best goalscoring midfielder in the fourth-tier.
But Berry has grown with the Hatters through the divisions to the Championship, where he’s now proving a ruthless finisher.
“I’ve been working a lot with Chris (Cohen) and the gaffer on finishing, and now Sheez (Alan Sheehan) is in.
“Most sessions, we do finishing after training and we do a lot of arriving into the box. It’s always that third man cutback, I’m always in there. It shows in the game that practice makes perfect.”
Asked how he’s going about translating his lower league talents into Championship football, Berry said: “I feel like I used to do more of those runs, but they weren’t as intelligent. I’m picking my time a bit better. I’d probably to ten of them a game, but eight of them are useless.
“Now I’m trying to do five a game, that are a bit more intelligent. And I’m playing with wingers that are really direct, really positive and have vision to see me a bit better.
“If you cut the ball back to me I feel like I’m going to score, so it’s more timing and the consistency of that run. Instead of doing it every single time, I’m thinking more about it.”
With a goal every 93 minutes he’s been on the pitch, and a 45 per cent conversion rate, Berry is Town’s third top scorer this term, despite a two-and-a-half month injury lay-off.
“I always try to get double figure,” said Berry when asked if he has a goal target in mind.
“Goals, sometimes they stop for a bit, and you can get a bit frustrated, but hopefully I can keep on going.”
Above him in the goalscoring charts is Town’s top scorer Elijah Adebayo and his 11th of the season proved the difference in the first half against Harrogate despite the minnows having the better of the match.
The 23-year-old collected a Cameron Jerome flick-on, turned and buried in the bottom corner from 20 yards out. It left Kal Naismith, who also scored, to claim the striker has Premier League quality.
Berry, who began the game in the bench, said: “I watched it from the sides when I was warming up and I said to Hylts (Danny Hylton), ‘that’s real top quality’. Touch, twizzle, bang and it goes in.
“You can see he’s got real quality and he’s only improving. Hopefully we can see more of that this season.”
Naismith’s lofted finished over keeper Mark Oxley belied his role as a defender and Berry said: “You don’t see many centre halves dink the goalie like that. Normally they just welly it and hope for the best. It’s top quality.”
