As Middlesbrough fans found out last night, you mock Harry Cornick at your peril, while strike partner Elijah Adebayo is developing into one of the hottest prospects in the Championship.
The pair ran riot to leave manager Nathan Jones purring over their performance in a 3-1 victory that fired the Hatters into the play-off places.
“You’re just a shit Jack Grealish” taunted the Boro support, when their side were 1-0 up, emboldened by a Cornick spaghetti-legged air-kick, a shot that troubled the Oak Road scoreboard and a gilt-edged chance squandered before the break.
But they weren’t laughing when Town fans sarcastically sung back the chant after the forward had fired their team to a 3-1 lead.
It was a one-on-one that Cornick – with socks rolled down à la Manchester City’s record signing – has honed a newfound killer instinct and the irony of the song was not lost on his manager.
“He works on them. He did 20 yesterday. He does them all the time, so fair play to him,” said Jones on the forward’s one-on-one finish, adding: “So, even though he’s a shite Jack Grealish, he’s a brilliant Harry Cornick. Harry’s a constant threat wherever he plays.”
That was his seventh of the season, signalling his continued rebirth as a goalscorer in a division where, last season, he laboured to a solitary strike.
Not to be outdone, two minutes earlier Adebayo had maintained his place at the top of Town’s goalscoring charts with his eighth of the season, which effectively secured the three points after captain Sonny Bradley had headed the Hatters level.
The former Walsall man had been missing for a match and a half, with a hamstring issue that seemed to affect Luton’s fluency. But restored to the side against Middlesbrough, he was a menace, marking a man-of-the-match display with his third in three games.
Jones said: “Elijah is developing into a wonderful frontman, but we can’t get carried away yet. It’s nice to have two, one on seven (goals) and one on eight.”
Fans have already taken to Adebayo. His flourishing quality afforded it’s own terrace chant 11 months into his Hatters career, whereas four-season top scorer James Collins left the club in the summer having never heard his name put to song.
At 23 years old in his first full season in the Championship, his progress has been remarkable.
Jones said: “It hasn’t quite been meteoric, but the thing about him, and I don’t want to be too disrespectful, but we knew what we had in the building. We knew we had to be patient with him.
“There came a point last year against Millwall where we had to throw him in. It wasn’t quite happening with someone else. We believed the way we were going was toward an Elijah, with pace, with power, with real energy and front-footedness in everything we do.
“That’s how we recruited. We made big decisions to let certain people go, fans’ favourites that had done well here.
“I don’t just mean centre forwards. I’ve been chastised for things like George Moncur, Kazenga (LuaLua), Jake Howells and all of those, but we’re evolving into something and that’s what we want to do.
“People have done wonderfully for us, but there’s no place for sentiment, with where we want to go, and that’s what we had to do.
“Elijah’s evolved fantastically well. He’s developing, but he’s still young and there’s still plenty to learn and we’re happy that he’s ours.”
