Luton blew Barnet away in a blistering three-goal first half as Jerry Yates and Cohen Bramall both got off the mark for the club after Lasse Nordås’ opener as they demonstrated a gulf in class that could have easily doubled the scoreline.
The League Two visitors had keeper Owen Evans to thank for keeping the tally down to three by the break, when Nordås and Yates both could, and perhaps should have, bagged first-half hat-tricks in the Hatters’ first Football League Trophy game since 2018.
They made their quality count early as Nordås converted Zack Nelson’s 11th minute cross two make it two goals in as many games for the Norwegian. Soon after Bramall played through to Yates, who had work to do, but having bullied their backline early on, he sent the last defender for a hot dog with a sharp change of direction and fired into the far corner to open his Hatters account.
But after Evans denied Town an avalanche of goals, the pick of them came moments before the interval when Bramall hammered home a goal of the season contender. A free-kick in crossing territory, somehow inspired the wing-back to aim at goal and his ferocious 30-yard drive clattered in off the underside of the bar, with a satisfying bulge to the roof of the net.
It capped a dominant display to make Matt Bloomfield’s half time team talk a presumably sedate one after he named a strong side, even with six changes. But it handed 18-year-old summer signing Jake Richards his full debut and a second start of the season for academy ace Christian Chigozie.
The latter had very little to do, even though the manager maintained his five at the back system. Though Gideon Kodua shone in his 63 minutes on the pitch as wing-back. At one stage he spun on the halfway line and beat a bevvy of Barnet players, but his team-mates weren’t alive enough to steer in his cross. But he was always direct and, for a player still chasing full fitness, looks a promising talent.
And when the West Ham loanee was withdrawn, it was transfer deadline day signing Shayden Morris who carried on his boyhood east London pal’s impressive work.
The former Aberbeen winger’s first attacking action was to race clear of Romoney Crichlow but, yet again, there wasn’t a blood orange shirt to finish off his delivery into the six-yard area. For lovers of wing play, Luton appear to have stacked the deck this term.
Undeterred, Morris then repeated the trick, got tripped in the box and he buried the spot-kick to notch on his debut. And from the half an hour that Kenilworth Road saw, he looks a very exciting prospect. The mind boggles at what he could achieve if deployed in his preferred place as a winger, should the transfer deadline day deals inspire a change of formation.
And though Town took their foot off the gas in the second half, and the last word went to Barnet as Adam Senior’s header expertly found the top corner with virtually the last touch of the game, this was another encouraging display of attacking intent. One that still has new striker signings Ali Al-Hamadi and Joe Gbodé to squeeze into the options.
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