Luton boss Matt Bloomfield hailed new signing Shayden Morris’ direct debut after the winger scored in an impressive substitute cameo in the 4-1 Vertu Trophy win over Barnet just a day after joining from Aberdeen.
Morris, who completed his deadline day move on Monday, came off the bench for a lively 30-minute a spell on Tuesday night, showing the Kenilworth Road crowd his electric pace and winning and converting a penalty to open his goalscoring account for the Hatters, which made for a dream debut.
The 23-year-old replaced fellow summer signing Gideon Kodua, who was equally impressive in the first half where Town blitzed Barnet 3-0 and arguably could have doubled that tally, but for the Bees’ keeper Owen Evans.
It was the pair’s pace and power that helped the Hatters really demonstrate the attacking intent that Bloomfield hopes will be a hallmark of his his new-look Luton side, having added 14 new recruits before the window shut on Monday night.
“I think maybe that’s what we’ve been lacking a little bit earlier in the season,” the Hatters boss said. “We’ve been building up Gideon, we’ve now got Shayden to add to the group as well. Alongside Milli [Alli], I thought he had to carry a lot of the weight of the one-v-one moments earlier in the season, but now he’s got a few mates around him to help with that workload.
“We’re going to come up against some low blocks at times. We want to excite, we want players to be in those wide areas. I love watching wingers play, because I could never do it, so I love watching how they do it.
“It excites, right? and people pay their money because they want to be excited and they want to enjoy watching their football team. Players like Shayden, Gids, Milli, they do excite. So yeah, we’re really pleased to add him.”
